Do you like BULATS or TOEIC ? Yes or no : You'll like this ! Enjoy Royan !

Le Marché central

This text is dedicated to my four new friends met during an English training course at the Carel (Royan) - Béatrice, Alice, Laurent and Pierre - and our two brilliant teachers, Samantha and Steven.
It includes some volontaree mistakes and others non volontaree (I'm not a C1 !), as well as blanks (to complete). So, it is an exercise, but, above all, it is a text for you to discover Royan. Have you ever discovered/ing Royan ?

"A toute chose malheur est bon" we say in France, what it means : "....................." in your Shakespeare language.

On January 5, 1945, the Allies bombed Royan and have destroyed the balnear city at 85%. ....... of the historians think this action has been useless. The French government decide on an ambitious reconstruction plan plan to rebuild Royan and the architect Claude Ferret (only aged of 38) is appointed in June 1945 to oversee these works. For him, it's an opportunity to design a contemporary city inspired by Le Corbusier and the Brazilian modern architecture. Why this one ? Due to the publication of the issue 7-8 of Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, which presented .... examples of the Brazilian architecture with the audacious technic of the concrete veil and the curved shapes that characterize the buildings of Oscar Niemeyer or Louis Costa's, Brazilian architects. What is also very interesting is the fact that the two bresilian architects had been influenced before by Le Corbusier who .... in Brasilia few years ago. The loop was complete !

La Voile Blanche

A lot of ...... in Royan didn't agree with the modernist style and preferred the traditional style "néo-basque" or in "Charentais style". The first houses ......  built in this style. Their owners could pay the cost of the construction immediatly. So you can see by place some of these houses ..... are not today the most sought after.
There are only a few old houses of the late nineteenth that have been spared by the bombs. You can see some very beautiful of ....., like castles, in the District of Le Parc and along the seaside; a second with white buildings of 5 or 6 floors and a very symmetrical urban composition,  located in the district of "Le Centre" and partly on Foncillon; and a third behind the Center and much in Pontaillac, which typically houses of the 50th.

L'église Notre-Dame de Royan

For an architect or simply for an architecture lover, it is a great pleasure to walk in the streets of these neigborhoods to identify the typical ........ of the "Royan Style".

Notre-Dame de Royan. Détail intérieur

First the stone basement of the building. Second, the stair in concrete or steel (often colored) and often with a subtle and original shape. ......., windows, in "bandeau" or like boat portholes. Fourth, the pillars that carry the house leaving a space undereath and make it as suspended in space. Fifth, the colours - yellow, blue, red, green - which give these houses à cheerful look. Sixth, assymetry and fantaisy in the drawings of the facade. Seventh some details for doors, locks, portals, porch roofs, for example.

Détail d'un escalier

If you have came to Royan and if you didn't see the 4 buildings below, stop reading !

My favorite houses are the so ..... "Boomerang" in the district of Le Parc, and, of course, "l'Ombre Blanche" by the sea.
The most delicate building and the most Brazilian is the Central Market designed by Louis Simon and André Morisseau, with the famous engineer (but also architect) René Sarger.

A vous de la découvrir !

Les plots urbains

The .... impressive is the Church Notre Dame de Royan. It is a construction that links both the art of architecture and the art of engineering. This master piece was designed by the architect Guillaume Gillet and René Sarger assisted by another great engineer, Bernard Lafaille, who has designing the structure of Le CNIT in La Défense.

Le Boomerang