The Ile de Levant is an island off the coast of France (near Toulon…so think of it as roughly half way between Marseille and Nice).

While much of it is fenced off as a military zone, part of it has a long history as a naturist haven going back to 1930, was pretty much Europe’s first dedicated naturist ‘village’ and nudity is pretty much de rigeur there, apart from the harbour area, where there is a dress code known as ‘le minimum’.

This would basically be a thong, or versions of a thong, for both male and female visitors.

You can see variants in the photo above, with one girl wearing standard bikini briefs, while the other wears a ‘loincloth’ to cover her genital area. The thing both girls have around their neck is a small pouch used to store keys, some money, sunglasses, etc.

The Ile du Levant likes to style itself as ‘the capital of naturism’.

The island is also one of those locations that still holds a ‘beauty contest’, ‘Miss Levant’ (Koversada in Croatia and Agde in France do likewise), which is popular. I’ve holidayed there in real life, did enter the ‘Miss Levant’ competition (I didn’t win, and wasn’t even in the final placings 🙂 Just a bit of madcap fun while on holiday, you understand.

Now, Second Life has its own Ile du Levant!

And exceptionally good it is too!

There’s an exceptional sense of knowledge of naturist history the instant you tp into the sim.

Firstly, the gentleman in the top could easily be one of the doctor brothers (Gaston & Andre Durville) who initiated naturism on the island. Touch his hat and you’ll get a copy of ‘le minimum’, which I’m wearing (below)

Harry, on his first assignment back at SLN2 following a period of ill health, accompanied me (and for us, it was also a ‘get to know you’ opportunity) and decided these made him look emasculated, so he hopped onto the Marketplace to grab a loincloth (L$30) he thought met ‘le minimum’ requirements.

After I logged off, Harry stayed to take more photos of the sim and…grrrr!!!!…I knew I should have stayed a little while longer…ran into Robin, who owns Ile du Levant.

It appears there are great plans to develop Ile du Levant socially, and we hope to be part of that, supporting IDL where we can.

Trine at IDL

 

From what I can see, there’s a lot to explore at IDL, so I intend to pick this up in a ‘part 2’ later in the week.

 

Trine