Ever since the beginning of naturism, France has been the number one country in the world where people like to drop their clothes. Today it’s not different. Nowhere else can you find such a huge amount of naturist places like in France. For many years, a common misunderstanding was that all the French just loved spending their time in the nude. They did not. Even though their country provided so many facilities for naturists, the large majority of the naturists enjoying those facilities were foreigners.
Today, things have changed a lot. During our nude road trip through France we were not only surprised by the huge amount of French naturists, but also by who they are. Lots of the French visitors we met at naturist campings around France were young couples and young families. What made this sudden change happen? Luckily we were in the right place, surrounded by the right people, to figure this out.
The Cap d’Agde syndrome
Naturists around the world have heard about Cap d’Agde and definitely in France it’s an established name. Most of all, the place is known because of the obscure stuff that’s going on. It’s largely a marketing thing. While naturist resorts around France kept their doors shut for even the smallest camera, Cap d’Agde was the first to embrace the media. It’s a story that has been used a million times by now. A journalist wants to find out what naturism is all about and decides to drop her (most of the times it’s a woman) clothes at Cap d’Agde.
Of course she returns with stories and experiences like the ones we had at Cap. A juicy article about how naturists like to dress up in leather, have sex on the beach and swap partners. That’s what naturists really do, ladies and gentlemen!
Melanie, the owner of naturist camping Verdon Provence, agrees that for a long time Cap d’Agde has been the reference of naturism in France. Keeping many aspiring naturist families away from this “perverted lifestyle”.
Melanie, the owner of naturist camping Verdon Provence, agrees that for a long time Cap d’Agde has been the reference of naturism in France. Keeping many aspiring naturist families away from this “perverted lifestyle”.
Naturist resorts around the country understood that the blame falls partly on them. They’ve never really tried to change the image of naturism in the media. Until today. Around the country, naturist places are opening their doors for the press. Allowing them to experience that naturism is much more than just Cap d’Agde. The same week when we were at camping Sérignan Plage Nature, 7 press agencies were expected to visit.
To say it in the words of Melanie: “Whenever a journalist wants to come, I always say YES!”
To say it in the words of Melanie: “Whenever a journalist wants to come, I always say YES!”
Naturism on social media
Everyone we spoke about the growth of naturism among the French agreed that the numbers are significant. Madelon from naturist camping Bélézy even shared the details: In 2018 the resort had seen a growth of 13% in young (30-40 years) families. You have to admit that this is quite impressive.
Social media definitely has done its part in this. Although the anti-nudity policies are a pain in the naked behind of many promotors of the naturist lifestyle, including ours, we keep holding on and use these media to provide a different view on naturism. Karel and Julie, the editors of the French naturist magazine La Vie au Soleil told us that especially in France the internet has helped to bring naturism to the people.
Great proof of this is the famous Naturisme TV, they bring reports of naturist campings around France and interviews with naturists on their YouTube channel. For the first time in history, the French are bombarded with news about naturism from all different sides. And as we noticed, this definitely brings results.
Naturism is much more than just being nude
Everywhere around the world people are becoming aware of environmental issues. Global warming is a hot topic on the agenda of many governments. There are climate marches around Europe and people get interested in exploring the possibilities of eco-friendly living. The French are among the first to understand that ecology and naturism go hand in hand.
Then there’s the stress that comes with our corporate lives. Also here there’s the inevitable link with our worry-free nude lifestyle. People are searching for ways to get back to nature and away from the rat race. Even if it’s only for the limited amount of time that we call a vacation. Because going back to nature is a step out of one’s comfort zone, it’s not hard to overcome that other taboo. And leave your clothes behind as well.
The people from France have proven more than once in history that they can be the founders of a revolution. Will the acceptance of naturism among the younger generations also inspire young families in other countries? We definitely hope so.
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Thanks for the report. Gives one hope
This is wonderful. I think I’d really enjoy a naturist experience in France that’s not the usual Agde visit with all the non-naturist things that go on there. The heart of this is the younger family people you photographed. Just enjoying life!
Dunno about the numbers, but .. for ex, that Naturisme TV ,them selfs are following ppl ,libertines on soc media that are part of the parties at Agde ,also other pages that are even national naturist pages follow interesting things .. , also i saw a video of a couple that are swingers, they have a son, and they them selfs say that many of the ppl u see on the “normal” nude beach in Agde with their kids , are the same ppl that get on at night time.
As far as the global warming, its a hoax .. im not saying that the climate isnt changing, but saying that its a natrual circle.. its not like we lived 6000 years ago or 15.000 ,or 500.000 and say that this has never happened b4 , but we all heard about the ice age right? so ..
Its crazy to think that we humans can even touch Earths own power of things. We are totaly irrelevant to it.
The climate change fuzz is all about the Nuclear Power lobby. Its still not that wide spread, so its good money, and in capitalism, when something gets old, aka everyone is doing it or having it so theres no big money anymore , you have to think of something new, cause thats where the money is, and when thats done, lets think of something else again…or make a full circle.
And only in France , you have 58 NP .. so much for eco friendly.
Anyhow , i somehow still cannot understand all the fuzz about the sexual things .. nudies are suppose to be open minded, accepting, tollerant, natrual, and open and honest…, so its said million times before anyway , …yet they always get fuzzed up about sex, or Cap , or anything similar related to it so far, that some literally act like some nazzi`s that`d gladly hang anyone even remotly doing looking or saying something ,cause hey.. NATURism is not sex nor sexy nor has anything to do with sex, and noo!.. not in front of kids ffs! they`ll die if the see something,or wont be able to talk ,and they`ll turn to serial killers .. (lucky we dont have internet and phoens today ,so theres 100% no way they`ll see anything till they get 20yo or something right..)
And yah,the good old .. theres a time and place for everything ,id like to be spared of that.. ,just turn on your MTV, and go to soc medias, ..what will you see and hear there? Isnt that suppose to be a time and place too? Out of all the other things, like smoking, drugs, weed. wape , alcohol, non healthy food/drink, so basicly things that arent healthy ,no1 cares about that, or gets freaked out about that, violent movies,games .. its all allowed, and accepted,everyone can see that or feel it ,kids too, but ,to the pit, with anyone remotly thinking, saying or doing something sexual (not to mention that its product is/can be, life, the exact oposite of all the other bad/unhealthy stuff basicly, that i mentioned, that no1 minds about even)
It sounds so hypocrite and conservative.
Just for the record, all this, applys on textiles as well, its more of a general thinking or should i say facts, the only reason why im connecting it to nudies, is of the things i already said ,related to the being more tollerant, open and such, then the textiles.
Ah well, global warming, so much that can be said in favour and against it. And unfortunately a lot of misuse. During the last elections in Belgium the subject was used a lot as well. Making it all feel pretty corrupt. Personally we also believe that it’s there, that it’s a cycle and that it’s not going away, whatever we do. Nevertheless it’s a good moment to make people realise that nature is truly a beautiful thing. If you take the time to enjoy it. And so is naturism 🙂
About the sexual thing, within naturism we’ve already grown towards a more sex positive approach. At least today you can hear naturists say things like “yes, we do have sex, but in our rooms”. Several decades ago this wasn’t happening much. It’s a historical thing. When the whole world thinks you’re doing something pervert and you really aren’t, it’s normal that you go 100% into defence. Even today there are countries where being nude on a beach is considered participating in porn and can get you for several years in jail. So the first thing you want to do is to create a general idea where nudity and sex are as far away from each other as possible.
When it comes to acceptance and tolerance, we see it from a different point of view. We feel like we are pretty much tolerant toward anybody. We don’t care whether you’re a swinger or like to have sex with an audience or whatever. We just don’t like it when it’s forced upon us. It’s all about respect. We don’t get naked in the middle of a textile beach either. Because we respect the others who won’t feel comfortable with our nudity. Just like we don’t feel comfortable when a guy starts playing with himself next to us on the beach. People can do whatever they want, as far as we’re concerned, as long as they don’t drag us or others into it.
Couldn’t agree more. I don’t care who has sex with who in the presence of whoever else as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult. What I object to is swingers using the terms naturist or nudist as a cover for swinging and therefore confusing the public about what naturism is (or is not) about. For sure naturists can be swingers and vice versa. Good luck to them, as long as they remember that they are two different things and act accordingly.
Interestingly, we’ve heard swingers complain about exhibitionists using the term swinger… It’s a complicated world 🙂
Hahahhaha , NL this has to be the craziest thing ive read all this time on this page lololol.
Stephen, im not sure we`re on the same page here really with what i wrote lol.
Well ya, of course , im not talking about the plastic on the oceans and such, that trully is a bad thing and made totaly by humans only, and its causing damage to underwater life, that can , in the future, cause major changes. But thats a totaly diff story and subject , somehow ppl love puting that under the same roof as the climate change thing.
Ah well, i agree, i dont like anything that is being forced, hence the talk about the climate change, and id ad, same goes for the lgbt stuff..i can understand parades where theres a real need ,but like in USA for ex? or Sweden? whats the point? .. its not a parade for getting back rights (cause i ALWAYS say, u are not given rights, but taken away, and then given back maybe.)
So now in the western world, parades are more comercial and leaning towards sex parades rather then rights parades .. and ,me being me, i dont care about that either, but then dont call it lgbt pride or whatever, call it as it is, sex parade, or fetish parade..
The reason why so many ppl think that nudism is sex, is the fact it self that ppl find sex or whatever is done in sex, sick or perverted …
I cannot understand why the ..sorry i have to say it this way , but why the fuck are ppl so stuck up about sex ,like its a fucking crime or something?!?
You wont believe what i read just before this post, there was a ..i dunno some kind of a world sexual something.. theres like an organization, doctors ,scientists n stuff.. declaration of sexual rights thing or such, and some time ago, the event was held in Hong Kong, i think , and there was a local member of that board that mentioned porn ,how its easy to acces, and so on .. and he went so far that he even said, that he didnt hide anything from hes kids, when they were kids, and that he showed porn to them when they were young , and guess what happened to them cause of that ? Nothing.
I mean really, talking bull about sex or anything with it, cause its omg or ewww what wtf .. would be the same as saying that its disgusting that ppl have/need/to go to poo or puke or something… kinda to put it in picture with my 1st post, ppl will freak out if someone says, hey i know some ppl that were at Cap with their little son, and they saw a guy banga banga a women on the beach! disgusting sick! are they crazy? kids can see them! , and then they go back to their hotelroom , get some “great” mcdonalds burgers, coke for their kid ,beer or Martini for them , and after that the parents will make some coffee and smoke some 10 cigs with it, while having their “innocent” son in the same room with them inhaling that smoke, and previously seing their parents drink booze while he was eathing a very healthy megaburger with coke.. hah get the point..
How people raise their children is completely up to them, we can’t be bothered much, we don’t have any. But what if that kid at Cap d’Agde grows up with the idea that it’s completely normal to have sex on nude beaches? Then it does become our problem…
Um.. im not sure you guys understood either.
I think the way you look at it is ..hum am i allowed to say selfish? Like in the sence, i dont care as long as i dont see/deal with it, then it bothers me. Its kinda same when ppl say, hey i dont mind gay ppl,what they do behind 4 walls is their thing, i just dont wanna see them parade on the streets..or see websites promos, or teaching about it in schools..
I kind of find it interesting that everyone managed to skip the comparing part with that same kid being in the same room where hes/shes parents are drinking, smoking, and all together eating unhealthy food while watching lets say .. well .. a movie where half of it is killing or such.. so kids are growing up with that idea, that is completley normal to smoke weed, cigs, drink booze, eat great mcdonalds food (eventho i like it lol) ..
And just to note if one more time, im not talking about nude beaches ,but generaly.
That is exactly what we mean. If we would have a problem with gay parades (which we definitely don’t, by the way) we would know that they are happening and we would have the choice to either go there or not. It’s really disturbing how people go to those parades and then complain about them. They are well announced, if you don’t want to see it, then don’t go. Similar to what we’ve been talking about before. If there would be separate places for people having sex in public, and they would be recognised as such, we wouldn’t have a single reason to complain. It’s like going to a church and they complain that there’s religious talk. yeah man, it’s a church, what did you expect?
Our fear is that people will get a negative experience at a nude beach and that others will say “yeah man, it’s a nude beach, what did you expect?”. Get the idea?
It’s not because we don’t want to see certain things that we believe they don’t exist. We know that it exists and we’re completely fine with that. Just don’t include others in it.
We’ve heard a beautiful phrase recently: “Our freedom ends where yours begins”. It’s all about respect. If everyone would learn how to respect everyone else, it would be a beautiful world. And we would have lots of things and places we could share. But we would have differences as well. I would like to be nude and you wouldn’t like to see nude people. That’s where agreements are made and where nude beaches are born.
Iceman, that’s absolutely not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that we should have a choice. I choose to go to a naturist beach. I expect to see naked people. I should be confident that I won’t see people having sex in public. If there’s another place where people can go to have sex with each other that’s fine. I can choose to go or not go and know what I’m likely to see. There’s nothing wrong with swinging just like there’s nothing wrong with naturism if that’s what you want to do. Personally I want to participate in naturism, but not swinging and that should be an option open to me. Further, I shouldn’t have to explain to the uninitiated that swinging and naturism are not the same thing. Swingers describing what they do as naturism blurs the definition and means people in the general public can’t tell the difference.
It’s absolutely not the same thing as saying gay people should keep what they do behind 4 walls, with the exception of the actual sex.
As it happens I do not allow my son to watch violent content, and although he sees us drinking alcohol we try to teach him to do so in moderation, but that’s not the point. Again the point is choice. I should be free to choose how I bring up my son, but swingers using naturist beaches removes some of my choice.
We couldn’t agree more. If you talk with naturists about nude beaches, three issues tend to come up.
1. Textiles
2. Gawkers
3. Sex
The first two, we can’t really do anything about. Most nude beaches around the world are public and you can’t force anyone to get undressed or not look at other people. In those cases we just have to trust that most visitors understand the ins and outs of a nude beach.
The last, however, is completely against the law. We don’t know about all countries but we’re sure that public sex is considered an offence in France. If you’d try to have sex in the middle of a textile beach, you’d have to be very quick. Then why should it suddenly be no problem at a nude beach?
Hum
“We’ve heard a beautiful phrase recently: “Our freedom ends where yours begins”. It’s all about respect”
I believe that that is jus that, a phrase, cause how can a freedom end while others begins from that point on? How can both be freedom then? There will be never such thing where everyone respects everyone else really.
As far as the parades go, its not just the parade, im talking about the parades being turned into sex/fetish parades, and how its pushed/forced upon ppl in the media, schools .. n such.
I understand what you`re saying ,and the point but the thing is ,that many times, its not stated that way in the blogs, untill i make a comment and get a reply about it. Thats why i even write a comment.
As far as the second post goes, well … you have to understand, that whenever im saying something, its not based on how things are now.
You said its against the law to have sex in public.
I know its against the law .. but my point is, why is that so bad, why is that against the law but it isnt to smoke in the same room as urs or some1 elses kids are, or drink or do weed, or stuff them with unhealty food .. like if McDonalds is junk food and similars, why is that legal?
Thats the point im making all this time..in all comments, but ppl always look at it from todays point of view… and at the end it comes to the same thing as u mentioned about the parades.. why is anything illegal in that sence then or worng or bad , if its a ,hey if u dont like it , dont do it/watch it ,and thats it, respect.?
Stephen ..
Just for the start, i never mentioned swingers in that sence , i just mentioned then cause of Cap and its reputation, you dont have to be a swinger to have sex on a beach or anywhere where u can/could/wanna be seen.
I understand what u are saying, but no offence, if you would stand back, and look closely what ur writing, you would notice my point, and thats, hypocrisy.
You just said that u wanna go to a nude beach but u dont wanna see ppl having sex there .. a question, do u see anything else on nude beaches or anywhere else that u dont like or wanna see? I bet u do , tons, yet u still accept it even if u dont like it.
As for my gay thing comparison, well , i do believe its exactly the same thing. Literally.
As for your son, i didnt know you have kids but anyhow, u said u dont allow him to watch violence, but u dont mind him seing u drink and saying he should do it moderate if he does?
I dunno how old is he, but not allowing one to watch violent movies for ex, but allowing them to drink or see you drinking is totaly disproportionate, not only by it self, but also cause i assume hes not “legal” to drink him self yet, yet its totaly fine for him to see others doing that?
Again, anyhow, i cannot help my self but not to see hypocrisy there.
To me, ppl, humans, are generally major hypocrties , in reality noone asks noone if they agree with this or that, ppl tend to make their own rules, to what they like, and they will judge everything else or even bash on , that they dont like, not only cause of that, but also to justify what they do like.
I mean .. just imagine this crazy story .. i have a kid right? and i visit ur home, and i dont drink, but you do , so u start to drink while we are there, what should i do? ask u , in ur own home not to drink in front of my kid? or should i just say well sorry we gtg, i dont want my kid to see ppl getting drunk..? (im not saying ur an alcoholic ,just gave an example related to what u wrote ur self) ..?
Getting the point? If we would all live and work by such rules, we`d all be locked up home and never leave it…
First things first, we find it a bit sad that the comment section of yet another blog post has turned into a conversation about swingers and sex on the beach. We’re not pointing at anyone, we participate in this discussion as well. But just saying. There are only three paragraphs in this blog post about Cap d’Agde. The discussion could also be about how media influences people, about naturism itself or (best case scenario) about the actual subject: how naturism grows among young families in France. But yet it’s about sex again.
Anyway, what iceman says about how everyone should have the right to do what they want is very selfish and will probably create nothing else than anarchy and hate. We still believe that respect is the key in all of this. Respect for others and maybe even more respect for what others have created. During the last 100 years or so naturist have united and built a community. We have lobbied for our own beaches where non-sexual nudity is the goal. And we believe that this should be respected.
If you’ve been asking your local government for a golf course for the last decade or so and once you get it a bunch of people comes to play soccer on it every Sunday, that wouldn’t be appreciated either. We’ve said it many times before, if people want a beach to have sex on, let them unite and fight for their rights. But then someone will have to become the face of the “sex beach movement”. And that’s where we see the hypocrisy. Who will be happy to appear in newspapers and give speeches about how they like to have sex with an audience? Or how they enjoy masturbating while watching a couple have sex on the beach?
A community without order doesn’t work. That’s something humanity figured out at least 50 000 years ago. How that order is organised and who the powers are is another story. But there have to be rules. If you invite us to your house for lunch, you probably wouldn’t really appreciate it if we’d start to have sex on your couch. But we wouldn’t do that, out of respect for our host. And even if you’d come to our home, we still wouldn’t do that. Out of respect for our guest.
One more time, i think that the replies are way off of what i was writing about .. its either cause ppl dont understand what im writing, or cause they dont wanna understand. But nevermind anyways, i give up on it.
Nick and Lins — Another wonderful, insightful post. Not a surprise.
I’m sorry to see the comment section go astray however, not that you have any control over that. It comes with the territory.
The blogosphere can be an odd place. It was something similar that drove me to shutdown my blog Naturistthoughts a few years ago. I had started the blog as part creative outlet, part for fun, and part of exploring and defining my own personal brand of naturism. Unfortunately, I got sucked into the idea that more followers and readers was a good thing, so I put some posts made onto Reddit. That was a mistake. While my readers and followers increased, so did the unabashed criticism. Before too long I had comments I didn’t care for, accusations and generalizations about me by people who had never met me. I should have expected it I suppose and had a tougher skin. I didn’t. So I withdrew from the naturist blogging scene, choosing to spend my time elsewhere. I certainly hope you never choose the same route when you perhaps are misunderstood or your posts are taken in a different direction than you intended. Your posts are always fun to read.
I have traveled to France many times but never with naturism as an objective of my trip. Perhaps one day. I do quite enjoy hearing about naturism as I feel it should be viewed — beautiful, wholesome, fun, carefree, natural, something for all.
Thanks for sharing.
In fact, we like it when our comments go wild :-). We often write thought provoking content and we often know from before that there will be lots of discussion. Some more focused to the topic than others of course. This time we just found it a bit unfortunate that the comments on quite a feel good blog post yet again ended up being about swingers and sex.
It’s something we see everywhere around the internet. The most discussed topics about naturism/nudism are about sex, swingers and erections. Since for the large majority of people there’s still a strong link between nudity and sex, this isn’t really surprising either. Now and then it bothers us a bit though, especially when it happens on our website 🙂
Anyway, thanks a lot for the kind words and we definitely don’t plan to quit Naked Wanderings. The amazing comments largely outnumber the bad apples and also on our other channels we get so much great feedback. We love doing this and know that most of our readers love it just as much!
I’ve always said that the French are far Ahead in the rest of the world when it comes to Nudism. America for example is still stuck behind the French whereas the French have it made in the shade.
The reason why French families go massively for Naturism is that the French are better educated in it than others, and have been for a considerable time. I use the word “education” in its broad sense, and do not mean to imply they have formal courses in the subject. However, I would observe that religion is strictly demarcated from state education services, and this is probably helpful. Attitudes towards open nudity in France are generally more liberal because at home and at school people have been brought up in an environment in which Naturism is known as a perfectly valid practice, for which practitioners should be neither shunned nor censured. With that general attitude, those attracted by the idea are more likely to try it, find they like it, and, in turn, get their children to do so as well. Hence, more happy Naturist families. I feel that the Naturist organizations would do well to learn from this, and initially do research with children and young people to determine what their knowledge of, and attitudes to, Naturism are, and then devise strategies to improve their perceptions of the movement.
We’re not sure about this. France has been a number one naturist destination for decades, but mostly for tourism. Similarly to Croatia, by the way, where we don’t see an uprise in naturism among Croatians.
Croatia is a rather special case, where we are talking about holiday resorts, which date back to the days of Yugoslavia, and which came about almost entirely for economic reasons. France, on the other hand, had a native demand which actually dates back almost to when the Germans started the movement.