Some weeks ago I was looking at the website of a French naturist location, and seeing what it had to offer. I do now tend to return, again and again, to the same Spanish location for naturist holidays, and probably will do so until my children are a few years older, when the likes of France and Croatia may open up as ‘adventure playground’ places for kids who can ride bikes, for example. For now, the sand, paddling, building sandcastles and so on is all they’re interested in, so Spain is ideal right now.

Of course, I have been at several French locations in the past. I love France, and its entire culture. I remember that we drove -in the BC years, before children– from Calais and really immersed ourselves in the mood by listening to some old French pop music, Johnny Hallyday, France Gall, Francoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg. We meandered our way down to our chosen campsite over a couple of days, stopping here and there, not pressed for time, and were feeling quite Gallic by the time we got there!

The French do naturism so well, and that extends into SL, with the French Gay Naturist sim and Rokutman’s (who isn’t French, but is obviously something of a Francophile) series of sims from the past really encapsulating the vibe of France.

While looking at what these locations had to offer, it occurred to me that we could extend our coverage of naturist activities, as pursued in real life, even if those naturist activities aren’t necessarily shown in the context of SL naturism. Par example, 🙂 , one site offered canoeing or kayaking as  a possible holiday recreation, while another had a climbing wall. I assume the latter was undertaken clothed.

Well, I got word out, and Pookes will be covering kayaking in the next issue of SLN (out next week, folks!) and I also passed this idea onto Barbara and Harry.

Harry has come back with a photo-essay -more to follow featuring other activities- about ‘rock climbing’, at an outdoors adventure sim. I won’t post the slurl just yet, as we intend to undertake further photo-assignments at it, it’s not naturist, and I don’t want the place crawling with avi’s until we capture its wild beauty!

So, combining a further posting in the ‘beautiful scenery’ series of posts, and kicking off a new series, which I’ve sub-grouped as ‘action men’ into one posting, here’s Harry’s photos of Don (who has modelled for SLN before), doing a bit of nude rock climbing in SL.

Naturism seems to lend itself to a bit of physical activity in its recreation, so the ‘action men’ series is intended to replicate a lot of what can be done in SL. Of course, all of these activities can also be undertaken clothed. Watch out for the next issue of SLN next week, in which we’ll begin to explore the outdoors life a lot more.

Ella.

I’ve recently discovered the doudiblog, which I like because it’s very different to the usual SL blogs. It’s unique selling point is that it blogs locations, rather than clothes, and has simply opened up a whole new world for me, and now pretty much acts as an aggregator for some delightful looking sims. I pointed Harry in the direction of one such sim, Misali, which is one of those beautifully assembled locations with an emphasis on experiencing and feeling its beauty as opposed to buying.

Harry is always keen to unearth new locations he can uses as backdrops for his photos, and this, I felt was right up his street.

And the photos prove it!

Just a small selection of three photos this time, but Harry has shot a lot more, apparently, and we’ll be featuring Misali in future posts, pretty much as a gorgeous looking backdrop. Rather than having some purpose or point to the photos that often accompany posts, we’re now into territory where we’ll be posting SL naturist photos pretty much for their own sake.

These three photos were all shot in a small bayou in a ravine at Misali, and kind of show off the vibrancy of the colour. There’s a lot, lot more to see, I would imagine, as my own trip to the sim didn’t even point me in the direction of this particular location. More to come from this place!

As usual, apply caution in a sim that isn’t actually naturist.

Pookes

The doudiblog is written in French, but even if you don’t speak French the photos give you a sense of what the location is about.

One of the things I do like to do in SL is explore historical sims, and if possible I’ll photograph models/avatars in a nude/glamour/naturist setting.

I’ve been over at the Versailles sim, it looks lovely, where you can pick up a freebie skin, a ‘powder’ tattoo to give it a patina of period accuracy, and some free clothes, just so you can get into a period feel.

Versailles is, of course, the former home of Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, who is attributed to have said, on learning of great hunger amongst the peasantry who could no longer purchase bread, ‘let them eat cake’. Historians question the authenticity of this remark, but it seems to have stuck to the Queen.

Our model, in the first photograph, appears to have grabbed the last baguette around (a variety of bread add-ons are also available free at the sim). No cake for her!

Let them eat baguettes!

Moving inside, to the splendour of Versailles’ high ceiling rooms, which I believe are available for rent, our model then slips out of her dress and curtsies to the photographer! (the curtsy pose is another freebie).

Part of my ongoing quest to pose in vintage settings, I do believe Versailles is a sim I shall return to as the backdrops to the photos are simply marvellous. Versailles is still in ‘winter mode’. I would be particularly keen to re-photograph this in summer.

I’ve tried to give the photos a bit of a sense of being ‘paintings’ (not altogether successfully) in keeping with the period in which they are supposed to be set.

Harry

additional historical reporting by Ella

nb: the sim is not naturist, so proceed with caution! That said, ‘roleplay’ is encouraged, to the relationship between courtiers and their servants may well involve some nudity.