French nudists get cheeky with theme park and museum outings

Some 30,000 people applied for one of just 161 places on a nude visit to the Palais de Tokyo art museum in Paris recently. /AFP

After a nude yoga class in a Paris park and a “no clothes day” at the city’s trendiest art museum, hundreds of naturists are due to descend on a theme park near the French capital Sunday for a spot of trampolining.

France may be the world’s top destination for naturist tourism – with up to four million people holidaying “au naturel” every year – but up until recently, French nudists have been rather more coy about shedding their clothes in the city.

“We used to think it better not to show ourselves too much,” said Cedric Amato, of the Paris naturism group ANP, which claims that the capital and its suburbs are home to as many as 88,000 nudists.

But all that is changing now.

Naturists are actively promoting a summer nudist zone, opened last year, in Paris’ biggest park, the Bois de Vincennes.

And there is no hiding their naked ambition to make further inroads.

A nudist restaurant, O’Naturel – a play on the French phrase for naked — has opened its doors in the east of the city where club nights are also held. Paris has seen its first stand-up nudist comedy show too, in which both the audience and performer went without clothes.

French naturists have also crossed the Rubicon of bare-bottomed bowling.

But what made headlines around the world earlier this month was when 30,000 people applied for a nude visit to the Palais de Tokyo art museum in the city – even though there were only 161 places available.

Amato said its huge success might spark visits to other Paris landmarks and museums, like the Louvre or the Pompidou Centre, which house some of the most famous nudes in the world.

“Not only did it fulfil the needs of our members to practise naturism in the city, it got the message out,” Amato said.