France / New Aquitaine
Royan
Royan is a coastal resort area in New Aquitaine, France. Its longest mapped beach (La Grande Conche) stretches about 2.6 km and has a sand surface. The sea averages 20.7 °C in August, its warmest month, and 9.9 °C in February; it never reaches 21 °C on average.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
The beach is tagged as supervised.
Services in the resort
- 121Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 15Public toilets
- –Showers
- 3Drinking water
- 233Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 23Hotels & guesthouses
- 26Grocery shops
- 3Water-sports spots
- 2Marinas & slipways
- 104Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 6Pharmacies & clinics
- 2Cash machines
- 1Bike rental
- 1Viewpoints
- 1Historic sites
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 102 restaurants, 6 cafés and 13 bars. Accommodation: 23 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Bathing water quality
The official EU bathing-water site “Plage De Foncillon”, 710 m from the beach centre, was rated Excellent for the 2025 season. It was Excellent in 6 of its 11 classified seasons since 2015.
- 2015Good
- 2016Excellent
- 2017Excellent
- 2018Sufficient
- 2019Sufficient
- 2020Good
- 2021Good
- 2022Excellent
- 2023Excellent
- 2024Excellent
- 2025Excellent
Source: European Environment Agency, EU Bathing Water Directive assessments · national site profile. Classes are based on four seasons of bacteriological sampling.
Month by month
October at Royan
Beach-day index 4.0/10 · France median 4.9
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 10.7 °C | 9.9 °C | 10.6 °C | 12.5 °C | 15.0 °C | 17.9 °C | 20.0 °C | 20.7 °C | 19.3 °C | 17.3 °C | 14.7 °C | 12.2 °C |
| High °C | 9° | 10° | 13° | 16° | 20° | 24° | 26° | 26° | 23° | 18° | 13° | 9° |
| Low °C | 3° | 2° | 4° | 7° | 10° | 13° | 15° | 15° | 12° | 9° | 6° | 3° |
| Rain mm | 79 | 55 | 66 | 55 | 65 | 54 | 46 | 49 | 44 | 76 | 81 | 83 |
| Cloud % | 78 | 69 | 65 | 62 | 64 | 59 | 53 | 54 | 54 | 66 | 72 | 73 |
| Wind m/s | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 4.9 |
| Daylight h | 9.1 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.5 | 14.9 | 15.7 | 15.4 | 14.2 | 12.6 | 11.0 | 9.5 | 8.7 |
| Record high/low | 16°/-8° | 20°/-10° | 23°/-6° | 27°/-2° | 31°/1° | 37°/6° | 39°/10° | 40°/9° | 36°/4° | 29°/-1° | 23°/-4° | 17°/-8° |
| Beach index | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 3.9 | 6.7 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 7.2 | 4.0 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
The beach-day index peaks in July–August; August scores 8.3/10 with highs of 26 °C, sea at 20.7 °C and 49 mm of rain.
In August that is 0.3 points above the median of the 625 beaches in France covered by this atlas.
At its warmest the water here is 1.4 °C cooler than the France median for August (22.1 °C).
Across the year the sea averages 15.1 °C, cooler than 75% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
December is the wettest month (83 mm) and September the driest (44 mm); the yearly total is about 750 mm.
Daylight runs from 8.7 hours in December to 15.7 hours in June; in mid-August the sun rises at 07:03 and sets at 21:14 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces south (178°). Open water fills about 19% of the horizon close by, which makes it a sheltered cove or bay.
At no time of year does the sun set over the sea here: sunset bearings run from 237° to 305°, behind the land.
The opposite shore is only about 12.0 km away to the south, which keeps the water sheltered from big waves.
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 4 m deep and 7 m at 3 km, a shallow, gently shelving sea floor. Behind the beach the ground is about 16 m above sea level 500 m inland and 23 m at 1.5 km.
Within 1 km, the land is 83% built-up land, 6% grassland and 5% tree cover (satellite land-cover map, 2021): an urban beach. Water makes up 17% of that circle.
- Built 83%
- Grass 6%
- Tree 5%
- Bare 5%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Rochelle Île de Ré Airport La Rochelle | LRH | 63.0 km | north |
| Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport Bordeaux | BOD | 91.8 km | south |
| Poitiers-Biard Airport Poitiers/Biard | PIS | 149 km | north-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 104 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station Royan (970 m), ferry terminal Embarcadère de Royan (810 m) and 233 mapped car parks within 1 km.
11 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 50.2K residents); within 30 km there are 38 (about 104.9K).
Around the beach
Viewpoints
- Baie de Royan 680 m S
Attractions & museums
- Patinoire De Royan Officiel attraction 20 m S
- Mickey Star attraction 310 m E
- Carrousel 1880 attraction 340 m S
Historic sites
- Phare Cordouan monument 800 m S
Marinas
- Les Régates de Royan 280 m S
- Port de plaisance de Royan 430 m S
Diving & boat hire
- Boat License Royan A-Z Nautic 230 m N
- Gap Ocean 370 m S
- Jet Royan 380 m S
Map
Loading map…
Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 7.5 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w222741782; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2B_30TXR_20260904_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site FRI3217306M017180).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 9.9K Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.