When people talk about going to the south of France, immediately the Mediterranean coast pops into mind. The mild weather, the long beaches where bikini tops have always been a rarity, places like Nice, Cannes, and Saint Tropez where half of Hollywood has a boat in the harbor and of course the world-famous naturist destination Cap d’Agde. We often forget that the south of France has another coast, the Atlantic one, which is (at least to us) even more attractive. With temperatures that can easily compete with its southern little brother, the Atlantic coast does attract a huge amount of summer tourists but you’ll rarely feel as packed like sardines.
One of the reasons is because the beaches are huge, during low tide you can probably fit a soccer field between the dunes and the sea. Another reason is that this side of France provides more than just beach tourism. High dunes and endless pine woods attract lots of nature lovers, huge seafood platters and salads covered with foie gras on the other hand are the wet dream of every foodie.
What attracted us the most though was the same reason why we like the Pacific ocean more than the Caribbean sea. The Atlantic is wild. Within a range of maybe a kilometer, you can hear the sea. The thunder of the waves is a relaxing background sound during the day and probably the best lullaby at night.
Our first stop at the Atlantic part of our little French tour was FKK camping Euronat, immediately one of the country’s largest naturist campings.
Our first stop at the Atlantic part of our little French tour was FKK camping Euronat, immediately one of the country’s largest naturist campings.
How to get to Euronat
If you’re planning to fly into the region, your best bet will be Bordeaux airport which mostly serves European flights and during the high season also several from Montreal, Canada. Coming from other continents you will have to fly into Paris and then reconnect to Bordeaux. But we can also advise you to take the high-speed train. In two hours you’ll get from Paris Montparnasse train station all the way to Bordeaux.
From Bordeaux train station there are direct buses to Euronat in July and August. During the other months, it’s better to take a train to Soulac sur Mer and get a taxi from there.
If you want to explore the area (which we can certainly recommend), a rental car will be necessary. Car rental offices can be found in both Bordeaux airport and train station.
If you want to explore the area (which we can certainly recommend), a rental car will be necessary. Car rental offices can be found in both Bordeaux airport and train station.
Most Europeans though will opt to drive towards Euronat themselves. If you’re coming from the south, the road signs towards Bordeaux should be your main point of focus. For the northern countries, it might be more interesting to drive towards Nantes and travel south from there. Especially for visitors from the UK who take the ferry in Bournemouth, Nantes will be your direction. A GPS is easy but signs towards Euronat are all over the area.
Where to stay at Euronat
Euronat is what’s called a naturist village and even that might be an understatement. With a size of 350ha and a maximum capacity of about 12 000 visitors, it’s larger than many of the surrounding villages. And then we’re not even talking about all the stuff you can do in this village, but we’ll get to that later. Maybe we should call it a naturist world, which is a term the campground is silently provoking by naming the parts of their campground like continents. Bungalows are most common in North and South America and Africa while Europe, Asia, and Oceania contain more studios and mobile homes. In total there are about 1000 rental units divided into more or less 30 different types. No matter the size of your family, your company, or your wallet, chances are low that you won’t find anything that exactly fits your needs. To make your stay completely idyllic, why not check out a place on Avenue de Guadeloupe or Boulevard de la Polynesie?
We stayed in a “Studio Garonne”, perfect for a couple, with a double bed, small kitchen unit, bathroom with shower and toilet, and a pretty large terrace.
Tip: Bring your own sheets.
Tip: Bring your own sheets.
Although Euronat is a little world on its own where everyone can own their own spot, in the end, it’s still a campground and of course, this means that you can bring your own accommodation as well. Another 1000 spots are reserved for your mobile home, camper, caravan, or tent.
Two thousand spots and 12 000 people may sound a bit intimidating, well, at least it did to us. But don’t forget the size… 350ha! This in combination with how the accommodations are placed (when you’re walking around it looks like complete chaos but if you look at the map you’ll notice the smart structure) and the amount of nature in between them does give a nice sense of space. While we were there at the end of the season, only 1/3 of the place was occupied but we can imagine that even in a full capacity you’ll never feel overrun.
What to do at Euronat
Another reason why Euronat is more than a village is thing things you can do around there. We dare you to find any village in the Aquitaine area where you can have a walk on the beach in the morning, pass by the bakery for a Fresh baguette on your way back, drop the kids at the mini-golf when you head towards your yoga class and meet your husband after archery before you visit an art gallery together. After spending about an hour determining in which of the 7 restaurants you will have lunch you remember “oh my God! We forgot the kids!”. They don’t mind, their new friends are going to t-shirt painting and of course, they want to join… This gives you a lot of time in the afternoon for a game of tennis, beach volleyball, or let’s get crazy and take a djembé class.
Although the food at lunch was delicious, you can’t go back to the same restaurant twice a day, right? Especially not if you have so many options. Another hour and a cheese platter with local wine later it’s time to dance or chill or another walk on the beach. And as a bonus: you’re doing all of this naked of course.
While walking back to your bungalow you notice the sign “Thalasso Spa”. Oh My God! You completely forgot! You can go to the wellness here… Good thing the kids club is open every day.
The swimming pool, two saunas, the hammam, the jacuzzi, and the solarium at the Thalasso can probably keep you busy for a while but this spa is mostly focused on treatments. From massages to relaxation therapy to specialized chiropractic treats or reflexology, it’s all there. We had a body scrub with oil massage and can tell you that it has been a while since we’ve felt that clean.
The above is only a small pick out of the catalog of opportunities at Euronat. If you want to experience them all, you’ll have to get over there. And you’ll need a month or two.
The swimming pool, two saunas, the hammam, the jacuzzi, and the solarium at the Thalasso can probably keep you busy for a while but this spa is mostly focused on treatments. From massages to relaxation therapy to specialized chiropractic treats or reflexology, it’s all there. We had a body scrub with oil massage and can tell you that it has been a while since we’ve felt that clean.
The above is only a small pick out of the catalog of opportunities at Euronat. If you want to experience them all, you’ll have to get over there. And you’ll need a month or two.
Around Euronat
We just told you, Euronat is like a world… What more do you want? The moon?
Just kidding, the area around Euronat is perfect for day trips. A long walk on the beach could certainly keep you busy for some time, there is a dedicated 1.5km nude beach right in front of the campground but we haven’t seen any signs saying to put our clothes back on. As long as you don’t encounter any textiles you can just keep walking in both directions. If you head south you might as well end up at the nude beach of CHM Monta (another naturist spot we’ll tell you all about next week) and if you go south you’ll get to the Saint Nicolas nude beach, which is much less crowded during the busy summer months, or if you’re lucky to avoid the clothed you might even get to Verdon-sur-Mer. Well, lucky… when we were there we spotted a naked fisherman between the textiles, the others couldn’t care less.
Just kidding, the area around Euronat is perfect for day trips. A long walk on the beach could certainly keep you busy for some time, there is a dedicated 1.5km nude beach right in front of the campground but we haven’t seen any signs saying to put our clothes back on. As long as you don’t encounter any textiles you can just keep walking in both directions. If you head south you might as well end up at the nude beach of CHM Monta (another naturist spot we’ll tell you all about next week) and if you go south you’ll get to the Saint Nicolas nude beach, which is much less crowded during the busy summer months, or if you’re lucky to avoid the clothed you might even get to Verdon-sur-Mer. Well, lucky… when we were there we spotted a naked fisherman between the textiles, the others couldn’t care less.
Verdon-sur-Mer is also the place where you can get a boat trip to the Phare de Corduan, which is called the King of lighthouses and is known for its magnificent interior. Other day trips include the town Soulac with its typical architecture and several markets in the area where you can stock up on oysters, shrimps and ridiculously cheap but delicious wine.
Staff at Euronat
The reception desk is always the first impression of a place and often one that will stick during your stay. Unfortunately, some places don’t pay much attention to this, Euronat is not such a place. We were greeted in beautiful French (remember that we were in Quebec recently, now we’ve learned to appreciate French which we can actually understand) by Tess who gave us an explanation about the place and where to find what. When our school French eventually got completely stuck and we tried to continue in English, Tess smiled and replied with a perfect UK accent we will probably never manage to learn. When we glimpsed at the other receptionist’s name tags we noticed the flags and understood that all of them spoke French, English, and German.
Guests of Euronat
From the license plates we noticed that the majority of the other visitors were French, something Tess (our friendly receptionist) confirmed afterward. About half of the guests at Euronat come from within the country. The other half merely consists of Germans and Dutch and to an extent other Europeans and English.
Another link between such a large naturist place and a textile city is that the small place community feeling somehow got lost. This is not a place where groups of strangers end up around a fire pit late at night telling stories and singing songs. We found that most of the other visitors preferred to keep their interactions within their family or group. Some might appreciate this while others would prefer it to be otherwise. If you do want to get social, the commercial center, where the shops and restaurants are, and the swimming pool are probably your best bets.
Summary
Our dream is a naturist world, but we doubt that we’ll live long enough to experience one. By visiting Euronat we already got a glimpse of what it could be. Now it’s an even bigger dream…
More info and reservations: https://www.euronat.fr
More photos: On our Facebook
Disclaimer: We have been invited as guests of Euronat, but of course all opinions are our own. We are super confident you will love this place as much as we did!
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How did you get all those photos without a single person in them?
By waking up very early 🙂
Photography at naturist places is a very delicate thing and asking written approval is very time consuming. So early morning walks are often a better idea. And the light is much nicer.
Love this place. I have been visiting for 15 years and already booked for year 16
Tbh ,to me lol a non naturist, this is prolly the best place of them all.
Its not fancy, as far as i can see from the pic, its just .. ordinary and very nice, lots of nature, and of course i love the caravans and campers 🙂 ,this defo look like a place i would go all the time.
Without a doubt no1 for me this far (i doubt it will be beaten).
Btw.. is my assumption good if i say that i noticed that most nudies in Europe are actually from France Germany and Nederlands?
Indeed, the Netherlands and Germany are certainly the countries with the most naturist tourism. The French will be well presented in France but less in other countries, just like the Spanish are well presented in Spain. And we should not underestimate the English too, but we’re not sure if they’re literally still European 🙂
Lol about the UK , tho ,dont mix EU with Europe, two completley different things..
But for the record, i never considered them as European for some reason .. very different ,ill stop there lol.
Anyhow, well of course, Spain, its hot there and stuff lots of beaches, they dont need to go anywhere else, so its hard to tell what country has the most nudies, but still it does show stuff.. like Belgians or Danes, or Sweeds,or .. Checz ,they could all go to Euronat or Cap, or to Spain Croatia .. still ull see as u say ,mostly Dutch and German carplates,so it still says something.
Hi Iceman,
Interesting to read your post, esp the bit about you never considering the British to be European?! I can assure you that the UK is very much part of Europe, and is as different in character as the Spanish are when compared to the Swedish, for example. I assume you consider both the Spanish and Swedish to be European, so why not the British? Odd opinion but its yours to keep, as you wish.
You are correct about the EU being very different to Europe though. That’s the thing lots of Europeans don’t really understand – they are very different things and while both are not perfect, they work very well for me. I am very annoyed at the stupid decision to Brexit – bonkers!!
The reason why i said what i said about the Britts, is the fact that the UK is literaly separated by water form main land, and that by it self creates boundary.
Not to mention other things ,political ,historial and mostly kind of a human relation things.
Hmm, OK. I would say that just like any other European country, the UK has different political, cultural, historical, societal etc. things that separate it from other places – as do all countries. So in that respect the UK is exactly the same as every other European country.
So the only other thing that in your view differentiates the UK is a 34 mile stretch of water between Dover and Calais? You mean like the sea between Australia and New Zealand for instance, which I presume doesn’t stop you thinking that both those countries are within the continent of Australasia?
I know the UK is an easy target for derision and negative comments at present re. Brexit, understandably so, but we have always been a strong and dependable part of Europe so its quite disappointing to hear that you don’t even consider us to be part of that continent!! I hope you change your mind at some point.
Sorry D but , honestly , most ppl in this area think this way.
Its more like a little bit of everything combined , and it has nothing to do with Brexit, hence i dont care about it ,and even this remark is one of those little things, the thing that one thinks that everyone else is thinking about Brexit or cares/has an oppinon/is worried.. its just the way it is.
Iceman, I’m English and I’m as European as anyone else in Europe. Keep your prejudice to yourself. There are Europeans on islands further from the mainland than Great Britain’s 33km. Are you excluding them too? Any views you’d like to share on the Jews or anyone else?
Completely agree. It’s very tedious and annoying when other Europeans consider themselves ‘more’ European than the British for goodness sake. Have they completely forgotten about the 2nd World War for instance? How we fought alone for the freedon of Europe whilst the Germans wanted to dominate everyone.
Hi Nick and Lins, is the site nudist compulsory? I’m a nudist but my partner isn’t- but she will go to a clothing optional site. Another great article, keep up the great work and Happy Travels.
Tony, UK.
Hi Tony,
Actually, the place is a nudist place, meaning that nudity is encouraged. But in such a large place this is impossible to maintain, so there will always be clothed people around as well. Meaning that you could go together with your wife and that she can remain covered. Some areas, like the swimming pools, are clothing prohibited though.
“Always be clothed people around as well”?
At Euronat, apart from on the beach and the pool being nude places one in a tiny minority. Yes, one can be naked to go shopping but it feels odd being the only naked person in a crowd of clothed French people, all of whom will assert no doubt that they are naturist: an odd sort of naturist!
It’s true that Euronat attracts a very wide variety of guests, of whom many are “beach naturists”, who like to be naked on the beach or in the pool but wear clothes everywhere else. It’s part of their popularity, we believe, and it’s something we’ve also noticed at several other very large campgrounds.
Great review. I visited Euronat in 2016 and really really loved the place. My accommodation was a mobile home and some of the neighbouring mobile homes were clearly used by people who spend a long time there as they were growing their own vegetables. The pine forest setting is really different to being on the Mediterranean coast.
Love this place. It is huge… And they are relaxe with teenagers. You know that they can be pretty self-conscious. I can tell you, even in high season, the place feels never packed…