Cordouan is a lighthouse standing alone on a rock bank in the mouth of the Gironde estuary, seven kilometres or so out to sea, and you cannot ride to it. The lighthouse is a boat trip away from Royan or from the Médoc side at Le Verdon-sur-Mer, and only in season and when the tide and swell permit.
The tower is one of the most remarkable buildings in France: a Renaissance and later palace of a lighthouse, begun under Henri III by the architect Louis de Foix at the end of the sixteenth century and raised in height in the late eighteenth. It has a chapel, a royal apartment and an elaborate stone interior that looks more like a château than a navigation aid. It is sometimes called the Versailles of the sea. The Gironde mouth is a dangerous place, with shifting sandbanks, strong tides and violent weather, and generations of keepers lived out here in all conditions.
For a rider, the coast here is a charming sprawl of seaside towns, pine woods and dunes, with the estuary on one side and the Atlantic on the other. The roads through the forests of the Côte de Beauté are quiet, flat and shaded, with sandy edges, and in summer they fill with holiday traffic, bicycles and the slow crawl to the beaches. Early morning or September is the time to go. Wind off the ocean is constant, and storms in autumn can be brutal.
Royan was heavily bombed in the last months of the Second World War and rebuilt in a bold modernist style, with a concrete church that is worth a look. It has fuel, restaurants and a long beach. Oysters from nearby Marennes-Oléron are the local pride, and a plate of them with a glass of white wine is a fine reward after a salty day.