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- Friday
Arriving in the mid-afternoon in the rambling limestone country of the
Cervennes hills, after the long drive from Paris, was like a breath of fresh
air. The sky was blue from corner to corner, as we entered the winding lane
which led to the world renowned nudist camping village of
La Sabliere.
Jacques, Sylvie and Bernard, who had been along on the Newt 2007, last
summer, had kindly invited me to join them as part of their team as
APNEL
representatives in the
French Naturiste Federation
congres (conference) for 2008. We arrived in time for dinner, and having
installed ourselves in the tidy wooden chalet, joined the some 250 strong
throng, of this French national naturist conference, at the restaurant by the
river. We were noticable by our observance of the allegedly appropriate dress
code, in contrast to most of the other participants. Granted it was a tad
cool, being April, and we were not surprised to see many of the older folk
dressed warmly, but it was still warm enough for some of us to strip off with
enthusiasm, and attempt to bolster the spirit of the event. This was the first
FFN congress for a number of years which had actually been held at a mainstream
nudist venue which may be a telling point for the future of naturism generally.
Apparently during the last decade, or so, all conferences had been held near
Paris, presumably for the convenience of all the clothed people who lived in
that area. When one wonders why nudist club memberships are dropping, in
particular youth memberships, the future of the activity, and naturist
activists generally declining in numbers, perhaps the governing bodies might do
well to look at their own behaviour, and the example they are setting, with a
critically objective eye. So, while our little group were here, we tried to do
out bit to help out ;-)
- Saturday
The the first day dawned bright and blue, and while the air was a bit cool to
begin with, by the time we'd jogged down through the chalets for a late
breakfast, the temperature was climbing steadily. Again, along with a small
number of like-minded enthusiasts, we appeared to be among the very few naked
people to be seen for some time. We started the day by wading across the cool,
but shallow, river, and hiking up the far side towards the limestone crags
which dominated the view from the resort. Taking a steep and rugged trail
through the undergrowth, we emerged at the top of the rocky ridge to a
stupendous view over the valley below. La Sabliere is nicknamed "The Little
Sandpit", in part because the river banks lining the curving stream are
markedly sandy. The ambience of the place includes being rambling and
overgrown and wild, beautifully rugged with many places to quietly explore with
or without other people - a seriously fantastic place. From our vantage point
we had a perfect view of the river winding through the landscape, cutting an
impressively rambling gorge enroute, leaving many small outcrops of steep and
pockmarked limestone scattered around the gorse covered hill sides. We
returned to the campsite, with a minor adventure where I nearly lost a sandal
by throwing it into a tree, in a vain attempt to make it easier (!) for Jacques
to re-cross the river. We managed to rejoin the main conference on the terrace
by the swimming pools, halfway up the main slopes of the resort, by mid-day.
We met all sorts of people during the day, and none more interesting than
Christianne Lecocq, wife of the famous Albert, who together had been founding
members of the French naturist movement, in-between the war years. She was 97
years old still pottering about and, while understandably dressed against the
cool air of April at her age, was enthusiastic for the nudity APNEL, and
several other hardy souls, was demonstrating, against the main flow of the
majority. Even though I understood very little French Jacques helped me to
understand some of what she had to say. She was clearly very healthy, a
long-lived inspiration, and it was an honour to have the opportunity to
actually meet her in person. We also met many others whose names I am
uncannily unable to recall. Among those I can, the ebullient proprietress of
the
Ile du Levant
Elizabeth, whose enthusiasm for naturism made her a lot of fun to talk to, too.
The conference got under way and, after some time, Jacques and Sylvie, along
with Philippe, got their chance to stand up and address the audience. They
were, again, particularly noticable, by being the only representatives on the
actual naturist conference panel who were actually naked. The photographer,
the maitre'de and some members of the audience, probably 5 per cent of the
people there, were also naked, although in fairness it was not exactly warm
just sitting in the shaded room. After the APNEL presentation, we were
co-erced into joining an archery photo-shoot on behalf the French style and
fashion magazine
Marie-Claire
This was a bit of unexpected fun, as we got some naked archery practice
alongside Zeta, a pretty young journalist, who was, of course, the main object
of the story. Florence, a sweet and charming photographer, was also
enthusiastic, and we all had a great time talking and posing, taking aim and
releasing, and so on. Much to my surprise, and probably with much invoking of
deeply rooted English genetic memories from Agincourt and Crecy, I even managed
to hit the target every now and then. We finished off the day with a gala
dinner, accompanied by the traditional kind of
well-intentioned-everyone-likes-to-dance-to-the-old-favourites and dreadfully
predictable electric piano music, which ensures that the young people don't
want to come along to this kind of event, ever again. One day, someone will
get some young people to help organise naturist activities, and we'll see some
live music, rock and jazz, funk, R'n'B, maybe some pop... This was of course a
national conference and realistically one doesn't expect to see much live
rock'n'roll at one of these, but even so, the general atmosphere was of all the
people thoroughly enjoying themselves, and that's the main thing. Basically,
it was a fun evening for everyone there.
- Sunday
Another bright and blue dawn welcomed us for breakfast, after which Bernard and
I, after finally managing to find the extraordinarily well-marked trail, took
the contouring route through the brush, to the fortified chateau on the side of
the hill. En-route we met a group of some twenty-five well clothed naturists
walking back from the chateau, accompanied by several friendly and mostly
encouraging remarks. Even though this was a naturist event, we were still
managing to produce a certain frisson by actually being naked here. Lest
anyone take umbrage with my slightly light-hearted ridiculing of the mainstream
here, I should point out that I think it is of course perfectly reasonable to
wear whatever clothes are necessary for the temperatures, weather conditions,
etc. of the time, and it is also perfectly ok for some people to wear clothes
and others not, as suits them for whatever reasons they choose. It merely
seemed to me to be somewhat excessive for 240 people to be dressed, at a
naturist event, political or not which 250 people were attending. This
notwithstanding, at the end of the day, freedom of choice is the important
thing and it was good to be able to exercise ours without fear of unwanted
intrusion from outside. On our arrival at the castle itself, we met up with
the Marie-Claire photographer/model team once more, and were happy to oblige
the friendly pair with some extra, and hopefully interesting, nudity for their
shoot, while we posed gazing at the fascinating valley below from the ruined
castle ramparts. The opportunity to appear naked in a mainstream, approved by
all of society, magazine, read by millions, was not to be missed. Not that
anyone would be buying the magazine to see me of course, but they might still
find the healthy contrast of Bernard and I, a pair of nearly old croaks, with
the pretty young thing quite entertaining, all the same.
After lunch Jacques had arranged a
RandueNue,
which is a French play on words meaning naked hiking. We started the
gentle hike following the river through the wooded campsite, with about fifteen
mostly naked people, which was quite a good turnout, all things considered.
Most importantly Paul, the newly elected president of the FFN, also joined us
for this naked hike. This was apparentlty quite a coup for APNEL, as the
outgoing president had been fiercely anti naked hiking and had apparently been
responsible for a lot of naturist mainstream disapproval of the activity in
France. We actually met the outgoing French naturist president a little
further along the river bank, also going for a walk in the naturist resort but,
of course, both clothed and steadfastly approving of our little hike. It's
times like this when I'm not sure if it's better to be able to understand what
people say, or not. It'll be interesting to see whether the new presidency can
stir up a regeneration of interest in naturism, amongst the young in
particular. He might have his work cut out, given the kind of entrenched
conservatism which sets hold at the top of any established organisation, but as
with any new broom, he's in with half a chance if he gets a little help, and he
might get that, given the new movement of freedom and inspiration which APNEL
is helping to promote. All the same, it was refreshing to all of a sudden be
in the company of a large-ish number of also naked people, wandering along the
rambling and beautiful riverbanks together.
We continued following the winding river bank, under steep limestone cliffs and
along the gently wooded slopes, until we finally reached the abandoned
Hermitage at the end of the trail. Nearly everyone dressed here, until someone
had the idea of a group photograph, and off came most of the clothes. Then we
seperated into smaller groups to make our own particular ways back to the
resort, and I chose to return the way we had come, along the charming river
gorge. We followed this pleasant day's activities with a quieter evening
cooking a little pasta at our own chalet.
- Monday
Our final day started somewhat cooler, and the only place it was reasonably
possible to be naked in these lower temperatures, especially with the cooling
breeze, was to take refuge in the very useful retractable roof covered and
heated swimming pool. In between dips, we visited the sauna at regular
intervals, and although this was very pleasant, there's only so much
lizard-emulation a naktivist can put up with before going quietly (?)
stir-crazy. The APNEL team were very fortunate to be invited to be able to
spend the last evening in an intimee dinner with the incoming president
of the FNN, and while our ideas may not all be identical, presidents are
political animals naturally and have many people to please, our shared goals of
naturism and freedom, moving forward and evolving ideas by encouraging the
younger membership, seemed to parallel one another uncannily. Of the many
things we discussed, most of which I did not follow because of the language
barrier, perhaps one of the most important was the realisation that naturism,
and naktivism, should take a close look at the related subjects of
reportage and publicity and, instead of allowing other people to
misrepresent our position, for us to take advantage of modern media ourselves
and use it to present our own perspective on nudity. We discussed many
subjects over yet another pleasant meal prepared by the La Sabliere restaurant
staff. All in all, the conference had been a very entertaining and worthwhile
trip, and I felt very honoured to be invited and to be able to take part in it
all, hopefully even being able to contribute a little modern spirit and
enthusiasm into the event on behalf of the APNEL team.
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