THe continues to hug each cliff curve. To my left, the Mediterranean Sea swirled next to steep rocks, while flower plants are deployed to my right. A quarter of the coast of France is full of similar Senters des douaniers (Customs officers paths), which were once used to patrol the sea. The difference on this path is that I have nothing more than my backpack.
Outside the coast of the French city of southern Hyères, île du Levant is the home of the only naturist community of its kind, Domaine Nature d'Hélopolis. For 93 years, this rustic Eden has attracted lovers of nature and the authenticity of free spirit, as blatantly naked as Adam and Eve before eating the forbidden fruit. On each visit, I discovered that when people throw their clothes, they show their claim. Unlike traditional naturist retreats where nudity is rigorous, Hélopolis is dotted with optional spots. This makes it the ideal place for travelers to immerse the fingers of the feet in the naturist way of life.
I arrived for the first time to île du lift with my twin sister when I was 20 years old. We had grown up in a house that was comfortable with nakedness, but an island without clothes was an unknown territory. Disobar on the hiking route, it seemed that we were breaking the rules. And when a pleasure boat approached us, we felt as exposed as the rocks below. However, the Sun soon melted our inhibitions. It was stimulating to be naked in nature, every amplified sense as if our clothes had been suffocating.
Instantly we became friends with a British couple, the discomfort of talking with strangers expelled with our clothes. When I returned to Hélopolis 26 years later, after moving to the nearby Marseille, I was so delighted by his bonhomie, and I felt free from concerns as a solo woman. I have returned every year since then.
Française de Naturismo de Fédération defines naturalism as: “a way of living in harmony with nature, characterized by the practice of community nakedness, which consequently encourages respect for oneself, others and the environment.” The seeds were planted at the end of the 19th century in Germany as a social health movement in response to dehumanizing industrialization. While certain aspects such as outdoor gymnastics and alcohol abstention have disappeared, the quid of philosophy, to gather Au Naturel in nature bathed in the sun does the body and mind well, remains its reason for being.
One of the most unusual side effects of the tendency to return to nature that was strengthened during the covida Pandemia has been an increase in the popularity of naturism in the United Kingdom, with an Ipsos survey in 2022 that shows that one in seven British (6.75 million people) had practiced it, of 3.7 million in 2011.
There is also a greater interest among young adults. A symbol of body positivity and ecological awareness, naturism is also “a break in the noise of news, consumerism and other concerns that weigh about our generation,” says Naomi Gergaud, a fourth generation of 30 years, whose grandparents used to say: “We were not born in Knickers.”
The great climate of the United Kingdom is not ideal to be in its birthday suit, however, many British join north of the Europeans in the southern sun of France. The country is the main natural destination of the world, welcoming 2.6 million visitors a year in naturist clubs, beaches or campsites. Or on an island, as in the case of Hélopolis, although not a complete, since 90% of île du Levant is occupied by the French army. Over the centuries, all, from Barbary pirates to Benedictine monks, settled on the island for their strategic and remote location.
The French doctors of Natural Medicine Gaston and André Durville threw roots in île du Levant in 1932, just out of the foundation of a naturist camp called Physiopolis on the Island of Platais in the Seine. The brothers appointed their Héliopolis Mediterranean settlement, after the belief of the ancient Greeks in the therapeutic properties of the sun (Helios). Almost a century later, Hélopolis is a trip back to those simpler times, despite being only five nautical miles on the shore.
I address a passenger boat, called appropriate amour des îles (Love to the Islands) – In Hyères. While the waves splashed me in a salt water fog, the 90 -minute trip through the Mediterranean prepares the scene for a great escape, especially when the captain takes a detour to a rocky formation outside this world, Cap des Mèdes, because “the light is too beautiful.” There is no hurry since île du Levant moves at his own pace.
That is partly due to the fact that cars are not allowed on the island, except for a taxi to transport people from the port to their accommodation. Hélopolis has a small footprint of only 65 hectares (160 acres) and approximately 90 residents throughout the year. In addition, the welfare of walking aids, especially because it is on such a steep slope. A place tells me to take three days when the legs fit. So pack lightly, which is easy when you will mainly look a pareo. But do not forget a torch, although electricity arrived in 1989, there are no street lamps, which adds to the charm of yesteryear.
After leaving my bag in Soléa Lodges, a trio of lovely studies with sea views, I go to a wandering by roads with eucalyptus aroma that move from the libraries of the finish line and the houses of dreamer such as the prisoner (hiding appeared). I find it easy to navigate with Wooden Street signs, which have adagios in French as “Être nu rendre heureux ” (Being naked makes you happy). Surely that is the case when a coriacea woman dressed with just a lavender bumbag and matching flip flops greet me with an exuberant “Bonjour“
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All roads lead to Durville place that leads Hélopolis. The La Pomme d'AD restaurant/restaurant has been the resort social center since 1932. “I came to vacation here and I never left,” says my waiter. Tourists collect collectibles with naked themes in l'érotique traversée des siècles and large slices of quiche for picnics in boulangerie pâtisserie la grigne. Complete nudity is prohibited in stores (Don Thong lifts like minimum to avoid this rule). This is because the Hyères City Council has a presence in Hélopolis, directing the Itty-bitty City Council, the Post Office and the Police Station. Full -time islanders handle everything else with their local union. Therefore, the peculiarity of Hélopolis is a “private domain that is open to the public.”
Nudism keeps tourism at bay compared to the busiest Ists (golden islands) such as île de Cuerolles, which attracts four times more visitors than île du lift in high season. I have only visited in spring and autumn, which are the best moments to savor silence with the locals.
A third of Hélopolis is covered by Domaine des Arbousiers, a natural reserve that extends between a dense machio and the coast hit by the wind. The Sentier Du Point Du Jour, from the Strawberry Tree, leads to the highest point, where I am rewarded with a surprisingly beautiful military base panorama (the first birds should reach dawn). Returning to the Mediterranean, the precipitate path of the Sentier des Moines Zigzags through a French pine forest to the most deltier of the Bord of Mer.
This coastal path is better crossed in the fan. With my skin deliciously heated by the sun and renewed by the breeze, I feel as free as the graznid seagulls that slide the thermal over me. Each step affirms the axiom of “naturalism is freedom” that the Levantines preach. An immersion is called in Bain de Diane, where the dispersed concrete platforms between rocks are covered with bathers. Their naked bodies are as part of the landscape as the lizards that run by their side, remembering the poetic novel of the writer Sophie Fontanel the Capital de la Douceur: “It's hard to believe that we see you so much when we are naked. We are all the same ideogram.”
Beyond the port, Plage Des Grottes is the only sandy beach in Hélopolis. The magnificent Turquoise cove has always been firmly naked. “The locals once used mirrors to divert the sun's rays in the eyes of textiles [clothed people] To move them away, ”says Septuagenarian Frédéric Capoulade, historian of the island.
People can often be less social on traditional naked beaches. “As a naturist community, we don't have the same barriers here,” says Fred Godeau, owner of the Héliotel hip with his partner, Julie (his restaurant serves a star panorama). Fred's words echo the belief of the Durville brothers that clothing represents the social class to which an individual belongs. All are on equal terms with just a smile.
The ferry goes from Hyères (90 minutes, € 29 ReturnTLV-tvm.com) and WASHING (35-60 minutes, € 34 Return, Ot-lelavandou.fr). Accommodation in Soléa Lodges (Open throughout the year, Ildulevant.com.fr) beginning € 80 per night for a study sleeping three. HéniOTEL (Open from May to September, Heliotel.net) It has doubles of € 150 BED AND BREAKFAST
Author: Saxon
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