France seems like it would be a great place for cfnm (casual attitude to nudity, lots of tourists) but I don't seem to have found the right places. My pick of the list below is Plage de Pampelonne at St Tropez.
Paris
Espace Naturiste de Paris is a nudist lawn within the Bois de Vincennes park in the eastern suburbs of Paris (12th Arr.). I visited once because I was in the neighbourhood. It feels a little like the parks in Germany - slightly strange to suddenly encounter naked people tanning on the lawn in a park in the middle of a large city. When I was there, a warm day in June, I'd say there were 50 people, almost all of them nude, and 100% male. Not recommended for cfnm.
Mediterranean coast
Cap D'Agde Cap D'Agde Village Naturiste is a gated village with a small entrance fee (note that passports or local French photo IDs are required) - if you're cheap enough or forgot your passport, you can walk along the beach from Marseillan Plage and get in for free, but its a long walk and not worth it in my opinion). The entire village is clothing optional, with a strange mix of traditional nudist families (mostly staying at the campground) and hedonistic swingers (mostly staying in the hotels). You can do your supermarket shopping naked, and no-one will blink. There's an obvious swingers vibe in the evenings but very safe and respectful. There are several adult venues, including Glamour - a swingers club known for its naked afternoon foam parties. The beach (Plage Naturiste) is split in two - south of Paralia beach club is a traditional family nudist beach, 90%+ nude. North of Paralia is the infamous swingers beach, ~80% nude, lots of overt sexual activity. Such a high concentration of naked people means that being naked doesn't really get a reaction. Somewhere that's probably worth seeing once, but not really for cfnm.
Ile du Levant Ile du Levant is a small and very scenic island in the mediterranean, accessible by boat from Le Port, Hyères. Where the boat stops is a small textile village. One beach (La Plage des Grottes, just south west of the village) had a sign saying "Zone Reservee Aux Naturiste", but most of the island is nature reserve and nudity was practiced on most of the beaches. When i was there, the majority of people were naked at every beach except for the one in front of Heliopolis.
Plage De Pampelonne, St Tropez. St Tropez is a very expensive resort town without a beach. Maybe 4km away is a very long beach, which is where people staying in St Tropez go to relax. Apparently, this beach (particularly Plage De Tahiti - the northern most part of the beach) was famous as a nude beach since the 60s. Now its a charmless overcrowded strip of expensive beach bars. As you walk along the beach there are several short sections dedicated to nude bathing. I couldn't tell you where the nude sections are - the beach is about 4km long, and there were about 4 sections of 100 metres with nudists. There didn't seem to be any signs, so I just copied the crowd. On a busy day in July or August the beach is very busy, with constant foot traffic of clothed beach goers walking past the nude sections. (For Americans - the best analogy I can give is Baker Beach on a busy sunny day, with all the clothed tourists walking past the nude section). Fine if you're close by, but hardly "bucket-list" material.
Plage Batterie, Cannes. Plage Batterie is no longer an official nudist beach, but nudism is still very common. Just east of Cannes, and accessed by a pedestrian tunnel under the rail lines. When I was there, the beach itself was almost exclusively nude, with a good gender mix. To the east of the beach becomes gay and cruisey. Not great for cfnm.
Plage Platforme, Nice. Plage Platforme is just to the east of the port in Nice city. Small rocky ledges, accessed by stairs down from the pedestrian walkway. Because Platforme is rocky ledges its hard to get a sense of how many people are there, but on a sunny day there was maybe 50 people scattered over the rocks, mostly nude, 75% men. Despite being overlooked in theory by the beach boardwalk, this end of town doesn't get much foot traffic, and someone would need to be almost leaning over the edge to see down onto the beach. Not great for cfnm.
Various beaches, Eze There are three nude beaches in Eze that I'm aware of. Plage Pissarelles, to the east of Eze toward Cap d'Ail, is the straight beach, with a pretty even gender balance. Hard to get to, very private, uncomfortable rocky beach, backed by large cliffs. When I was there, it seemed to be frequented by lots of "first time" or nervous nudists complete with stark white tanlines. Very high percentage of nudists. Crique Cap Estel is the gay beach. Plage d'Eze is the main beach in Eze - at the extreme right end there are usually leathery tanned vintage nudists (~100% nude, no through traffic). None of these are great for cfnm.
I'm sure there must be better cfnm options in France than this. Any suggestions?
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