France - Euronat

In January 2002 David posted a report of an August 2001 visit to Euronat.

Introduction
We booked through Dune Leisure, who were very competitive on price (in fact, the same cost it seems, as booking direct). It is unclear from their website whether Dune is still a going concern as a naturist travel agent, but we would recommend them highly, what with answering endless frightened queries from new naturists with bad French skills, and rearranging transfers after David forgot his passport.

Weather
It was sunny all day for 2 whole weeks out of 3, regularly peaking at 30 deg C around mid-afternoon. There was one thunderstorm, and 2 or 3 days of showers, the rest just cloudy.

Shops & Restaurants
It's inevitable that these will be more expensive than British super/hypermarkets, but prices compared well with local stores in the UK. We didn't feel robbed! The stores included 2 mini-markets, one was a Spar and the other had more of a deli feel, offering cheeses and meats. There was an organic food store, a wine cellar, a newsagents/bookshop (not a library, as the Euronat brochure states), a Jungle Bazaar (selling mainly Balinese goods - it looked like something out of Camden Town transplanted to a naturist resort, but it was good for present shopping, although of course we hadn't been to Bali), a baker, a bike hire, beach goods, chemists etc. etc. (we forget, there were a lot)

The restaurants were fine for most people but pretty lousy for vegetarians. We were encouraged by the early evening rush of people with hampers and beer to colonise the tables outside the shops and bars which closed early - that way you get to feel part of the night life without having to sit in a restaurant.

The Petit Café was very friendly and tolerated mangled French with good grace - of course this too is quite expensive, around 30FF for 50cl of beer. That's another reason for gathering around the tables with your 9FF per litre from Spar. The wine cellar (Le Cave) was brilliant - you could bring a plastic bottle and fill it from big floor to ceiling vats marked rouge, blanc and rose for 9-12FF per litre.

Nudity
The pool was 100% nude, the beach 99%, and the commercial centre around 60%, and the site as a whole around 80%. This was very encouraging, having read various horror stories of clothing encroachment at some French resorts. That certainly isn't enough to make you feel completely out of place in clothes around the site, but you don't feel like a militant doing your shopping naked either. The evening turned between 7 and 8 pm on a hot day. At 7 still many people in the commercial centre were nude, by 8 they were the exception.

Body piercings - these are supposed to be forbidden. In fact we did see one or two people with, ahem, intimate piercings, but this rule was generally observed.

Beach
The beach was wonderful, very crowded around the north beach, much quieter in extreme north (past the old WWII defences and towards Le Gurp) and south. The unofficial nude area extends from Le Gurp's own WWII defences (200 yards south of Le Gurp textile campsite) to a row of flags north just of Montalivet-Les-Bains (probably around 2.5 miles). At either end there was quite a lot of textile co-existence.

The beach became very crowded from around 12 through to 5 or 6pm (lots of people not reading the backs of their lotion bottles! - well, neither did we). During this period the commercial centre was very quiet. Most shops (but not Le Petit Café) close from 1 to around 4.

Accommodation

We booked an Aquitaine apartment, which was ample for two, with loads of room around the edge for dragging your sun-lounger around to chase the sun. You might feel slightly isolated, in fact, by the space. We would consider a semi next time, in order to feel a bit closer to human life (we only shared our veranda with a family of shy lizards).

We found the maintenance and reception staff very helpful, and had no trouble with the return of our deposit.

Expeditions
There are loads of cycle routes around the area, which are well away from the main roads. There is alleged to be naturism practiced around Point de la Negade a few miles north but we never saw it. Montalivet les Bains seems quite bustling compared to Euronat - inordinate numbers of beach stores, saucy 'J'aime la Naturisme' postcards and Balinese gifts everywhere. There is a market on certain (sorry, not v. specific) days, with clothes, pots, and open air wine and mussel bars. Centre Helio-Marin outside Montalivet does not seem as good - the accommodation looked quite rundown in places, and naturists seemed a definite minority around the commercial centre - mind you, we didn't go to the beach, so maybe we only saw the reluctant teenagers left behind.

Hope this is helpful - please feel free to request any more information that we can remember.

David and Rachael

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