Casino de Royan

How the Royan casino came into being

"The government also wanted to keep up with the times and give its gift to civilization. It gave Royan a highway engineer, a man of initiative and ideas. This engineer advised the people of Royan, who until then had only offered their beach and sun to foreigners, to build an establishment to offer them, if need be, balls and concerts. The people of Royan liked the idea and decided to build a casino by subscription. The abandoned house of the ascetic Englishman, who spent his life in contemplation in front of a bottle, was bought. The engineer provided plans and specifications. A renaissance casino was built, surrounded by flowerbeds and parterres; it was leased to an active entrepreneur, who dug an icebox in the rock, made ice creams and sorbets, gave parties, fired off fireworks, and frightened the seagulls a league away with the noise of his rockets."

Excerpt from Naissance d'une ville : Royan (New Edition) by Eugene Pelletan (1813-1884)

Description of Pontaillac and the casino in 1863

"Pontaillac is always in vogue. The road that used to run behind the casino was no longer sufficient for car traffic, so another was built for the return journey, between the first and the sea. There are countless cabins in Pontaillac. Chalets have proliferated. Behind them, in the dunes planted with pine trees, we've set up roller coasters, gymnasiums, "escarlopettes" and games of all kinds. There's a pool with water jousting. I don't know whether the contractor pays his own way, but I've never seen many people there. The Casino garden is still the most pleasant place in Royan. Every evening, crowds fill its pretty alleys and the halls of the establishment. But what surprises me is that there's no dancing anymore, or so little, so little, that it's not worth talking about.

Marx's excellent orchestra plays its liveliest quadrilles, waltzes, polkas, scottishes or mazurques to no avail, while the ladies and girls, crowded into the thick-rowed bleachers, look at each other, and so the evening goes on. Occasionally, around 11 o'clock, two or four couples take a chance; we follow them with our eyes, but we don't imitate them. Such is the fun of casino balls. The casino room, on the other hand, is full of men, from eighteen to eighty, hungrily leaning over the tables, anxiously following the progress of the écarté game. There's no shortage of Calzados and Garcias, they say. In the past, there were fewer people, the salons were more modest, but people danced from nine o'clock until midnight. Is this progress?

Extract from Voyage a Royan, La Tremblade, Marennes, l'île d'Oleron, Brouage. Saintes, 1863, printed by Lacroix, V. Vallein.