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FRANCE EXPLAINED

Bare necessities: The rules for getting naked in France

France is known for its topless sunbathers and nudist resorts. But it isn't just a simple case of getting your kit off willy-nilly, there are some rules you need to abide by. Here's what you need to know about getting naked the French way.

Published: 21 August 2019 16:07 CEST
Updated: 6 April 2023 13:25 CEST
Bare necessities: The rules for getting naked in France
A nudist takes part in a swimming lesson at the Roger Le Gall swimming pool in Paris on January 12, 2018. (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

It’s not just beaches where you’re likely to find groups of people going au naturel in public in France. 

In fact for a brief period Paris even had a nudist restaurant, although that closed after 15 months die to a lack of custom, and in August 2017, Parisian nudists were finally given a spot to take it all off – at a secluded zone in the Bois de Vincennes park east of the city.

And with the places to get naked on the rise in France, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the rules that govern baring all in public. 

“The first rule for any naturist is to respect other people,” Jacques Freeman of the Association for the Promotion of Naturism in Liberty (APNEL) tells The Local. “And it’s really important not to be confrontational about your choice to be nude, for example if your neighbours don’t like you sunbathing naked in the garden.”

“There is no law against being naked in public in France – there is a law against disturbing the public order which means you’d probably be arrested if you walked into a church naked, for example,” he says. 

“If you’re walking in a forest naked and you come across people who are shocked or surprised by it then you should cover up and, if you have a chance, talk to them about it.” 

Freeman also stressed that there can be misunderstandings on both sides of the divide, with some naturists against the fact that you can be clothed in naturist areas, such as beaches. 

Naturism, Freeman says, is primarily about allowing people in society to accept each other for their differences, for example religion or skin colour. 

Nevertheless, he added that when it comes to getting naked in France, there are some rules you will want to follow to avoid being yelled at by beachgoers.

Here’s our list of what you need to know before getting naked in France. 

Going topless

Even though it’s fine for women to be topless on most public beaches in France, it’s not accepted everywhere. 

Touristy spots along the Riviera and Atlantic coast are good bets, and it’s also worth noting that for reasons ranging from skin cancer to creepy guys, French women aren’t quite so willing to take off their bikini tops in public.

If in doubt, it’s a good idea to check out the rules at public beaches and ask the locals what’s acceptable.

Going bottomless

If you’re someone who’s willing to go completely au naturel in France, then you’ll need to do a bit more homework. 

Being completely naked is accepted on certain stretches of isolated public sand and on designated nudist beaches or colonies like the famous Cap d’Agde in the south of France. 

So please don’t slip your shorts or skirts off in the midst of the beach crowd just because you’re in France. 

Here’s a list of five naturist beaches in France.

Be respectful

As Jacques Freeman of the Association for the Promotion of Naturism in Liberty (APNEL) tells us, it’s important to be respectful of others. 

Of course, the sight of unclothed flesh on the beach can be a bit of an eye-catcher for the uninitiated, but it’s bad form to take photos without asking first, or to stare or point. 

It sounds like common sense, but to many foreign visitors, especially from the UK or the United States, attractive people in public without much (or any) clothing can be something of a novelty. 

Also for the gentlemen ‘sans culottes’ who find themselves a bit too excited by the spectacle, please consider covering up or going for a swim, or you could land yourself in trouble.

You don’t have to get completely naked

At the vast majority of French beaches clothing is mandatory, though topless women bathers are generally tolerated too. 

But if you end up on a designated nudist beach it is OK to keep your clothes on, though there are some high-profile exceptions like the so-called ‘naked city’ naturist colony in Cap d’Agde in south-western France. There they’ll tell you you have to get naked on the beach.

Naturist holiday centres

There’s a wide selection of naturist resorts in France and most have their own set of rules when it comes to getting naked. 

In holiday centres, wearing clothes is tolerated in some situations, for example if the weather isn’t as hot as you’d hoped or participating in some sporting activities.

It’s best to contact the centre you’re thinking of visiting to find out its policies.

But nudity is generally the norm when the temperature permits and usually required near swimming pools and bathing places.

Naked hiking

Some nudists in France enjoy straying from the beach to go for a scenic walk. While there is no law forcing you to keep your clothes on while on footpaths, several naturists have been fined in the past.

Freeman told The Local anyone wanting to go for a naked hike should “keep a low profile” and be prepared to put on clothes when they come into contact with people, to “avoid any confrontation”.

Paris parks

Strictly it is banned to be naked in a Paris park unless you make a special trip to a designated naturist area.

In fact even bathing suits should not be worn in official city parks and, according to the official rules, dress should be “decent and in accordance with good morals and public order.”

And those caught wearing inappropriate clothing face fines of up to €38 euros, police say.

But even though you aren’t supposed to sunbathe topless, that doesn’t mean you won’t see people doing it.

Wear sunscreen

Whether you’re just dropping your top or going for the full monty, some tender parts of your anatomy, which aren’t used to so much sunlight, are going to get a hefty dose of ultraviolet rays.

This might sound obvious, put please don’t forget to slap on the sun cream. If you think a sunburned back hurts, just wait and see how unpleasant too much daylight is on your more sensitive areas.

And be warned, “cooler” parts of the country like Brittany where beaches might be covered in cloud or hit by strong winds can be deceptive.

The sun can be just as cruel in the north-west as it can be on the Riviera, if not worse.

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LEARNING FRENCH

Is the English language really just ‘badly pronounced French’?

A French linguist has been making waves with his boldly-titled book 'The English language does not exist - it's just badly pronounced French', but does the professor actually have a point?

Published: 23 April 2024 14:35 CEST
Is the English language really just 'badly pronounced French'?

The French linguist Bernard Cerquiglini is clear that the title of his book should be taken with humour and a pinch of salt, beginning his work by explaining that it is a ‘bad faith proposition’.

Clearly, the English language does exist and equally clearly the French are a little uneasy about it – with numerous laws, national bodies and local initiatives attempting to fight back against the anglicisms that now litter everyday speech, from ‘c’est cool’ to ‘un job’. 

But Cerquiglini argues that the supposed ‘influx’ of English words that are now used in France, especially tech-related terms, is nothing compared to what happened when French literally invaded English in the Middle Ages.

And the close similarity that the two languages enjoy today – around 30 percent of English words are of French origin – speaks to this entwined history.

“You can also see my book as an homage to the English language, which has been able to adopt so many words… Viking, Danish, French, it’s astonishing,” he told AFP.

The history

The key date in the blending of English and French is the Norman conquest of 1066, when Duke William of Normandy invaded England with a small group of Norman knights and made himself the English king William the Conqueror.

What happened next was a radical re-ordering of society in which English nobles were displaced and William’s knights were installed as a new French-speaking (or at least Norman-speaking) ruling class. 

The use of French by the ruling classes continued into the 13th and 14th centuries, by which time French was the official language of the royal courts, diplomacy, the law, administration and trade – meaning that ambitious English people had no choice but to learn French in order to take part in official or legal processes. 

Cerquiglini says that half of all English’s borrowings from French took place between 1260-1400, with a heavy slant towards words related to nobility, trade, administration or the law.

But a large group of non-native speakers meant that the French spoken in England was already starting to evolve, and the French words ended up with different pronunciations or even a different meaning. 

As early as 1175, the records show a Frenchman in England snootily remarking that: “My language is good, because I was born in France”. 

English and French started to part ways from the mid-1400s, by which time the two countries no longer shared royalty (the last English possession in France, the port of Calais, was lost to the French in 1558) and gradually systems such as the law courts and trade began to be conducted in English.

French remained widely spoken as a second language by the nobility and the elite right up until the early 20th century and French is still the most widely-taught language in UK schools.

The similarities

It’s not always easy to distinguish between English words that have a French root and those that have a Latin root, but linguists estimate that around 29 percent of English words come from French, another 29 percent from Latin, 26 percent from German and the rest from other languages.

But many of the English words that do have a clear French root are related to nobility, administration, politics and the law.

For example the French words gouvernement, parlement, autorité and peuple are clearly recognisable to English speakers. Likewise budget, revenus, enterprise and taxe, plus avocat, cour, juge, magistrat and evidence.

Amusingly, the French and the English obviously found time to share many insults, including bâtard [bastard], crétin, imbecile, brute and stupide.

Adaptation

But most of the people in England who were speaking French did not have it as their mother tongue, so the language began to adapt. For example the French à cause de literally translates into English as ‘by cause of’ which over time became the English word ‘because’.

There are also words that started out the same but changed their meaning over time – for example the English word ‘clock’ comes from the French ‘cloche’ (bell), because in the Middle Ages church bells were the most common method of keeping track of the time for most people.

When the mechanical clock began to appear from the 14th century onwards, the French used a new term – une horloge – but the English stuck with the original.

The differences

One of the big differences between English and French is that English simply has more words – there are roughly 170,000 words in the English language, compared to about 135,000 in French.

And at least part of this comes from English being a ‘blended’ language – that English people hung on to their original words and simply added the French ones, which is why you often get several different English words that have the same translation in French eg clever and intelligent both translate into French as ‘intelligent’.

Another difference represents the class divide that the Norman invasion imposed between the French nobles and the English labourers.

For example the words pig and cow both have Anglo-Saxon roots, while pork and beef come from French (porc and boeuf) – so when the animal is in the field being looked after by English peasants it has an Anglo-Saxon name, but by the time it is on the plate being eaten by posh people, it becomes French.

There’s also a tendency in English for the more everyday words to have Anglo-Saxon origins while the fancier words have French origins – eg to build (English) versus to construct (French). In French construire is used for both. Or to feed (English) versus to nourish (French) – in French both are nourrir.

Faux amis

One consequence of English and French being so closely linked in the bane of every language-learner’s life – les faux amis (false friends).

These are words that look and sound very similar, but have a completely different meaning. If you don’t know the French word for something you can have a stab at saying the English word with a French pronunciation – and often you will be right.

But sometimes you will be wrong, and sometimes it will be embarrassing.

READ ALSO The 18 most embarrassing French ‘false friends’

Often, faux amis are words that have changed their meaning in one language but not the other – for example the French word sensible means sensitive, not sensible – which is why you can buy products for peau sensible (sensitive skin).

But it once meant sensitive in English too – for example in the title of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility – over time the meaning of the English word adapted but the French one stayed the same.

The title

And a word on that title – La langue anglaise n’existe pas, C’est du français mal prononcé (the English language does not exist, it’s just badly pronounced French) is actually a quote from former French prime minister Georges Clemenceau.

He did apparently speak English, but doesn’t appear to have been very fond of England itself – his other well-known quote on the topic is: “L’angleterre n’est qu’une colonie français qui a mal tourné” – England is just a French colony gone wrong.  

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