Tag Archives: Cap D’Agde

My holiday companion for June 2015

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This time last year I was about to set off on holiday with two non-naturist friends who, over the course of our week in Spain, became naturist by the week’s end, and I reported their findings over the course of a week with our usual ‘Postcards from Spain’ series. I decided not to do a ‘Postcards’ series in September, 2014, as I’d done it several times, essentially replicating RL naturist findings in an SL context as they occurred.

That decision led to several complaints 🙂

It appears that you seem to like the ‘Postcards’ postings, on the basis that they’ve provided some insight into a naturist holiday from both an experienced naturist and newbie naturist perspective.

In about three weeks I’ll be in Spain, again, for my first holiday of the year -the one where I go ‘solo’ and leave the family at home. Sign of a modern marriage? I think so. It’s what we’ve always done, right from when Mr.Keng and I were first stepping out together and took vacations away from one another. We saw no reason to change when we got married and we’ve more or less continued to take breaks independently of one another ever since. For instance, had the football results turned out differently, Mr. Keng might have been in Berlin tonight for the European Champions’ League final (it’s being played between Barcelona and Juventus -from Turin, Italy, if you aren’t familiar with European soccer) to watch one of the teams he admires, Real Madrid. They were eliminated at the semi-final stage. As it is, he was in Edinburgh last evening to watch Scotland beat Qatar 1-0, and today he’s off on a fishing trip, which will undoubtedly end up in a pub somewhere to watch the game with his pals. Me? I’m going to get in some quality SL time later, and begin planning what’s going in the holiday suitcase.

Holidays are, of course, best when shared, so let me introduce you to this year’s companion. 🙂

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You’ve read about her before on these pages…

Yes, it’s my Dutch cousin Sylvia, the one who led the way on my first introduction to naturism in Cap D’Agde all those years ago. We see each other from time to time, and I used to stay at her apartment regularly when work took me to the Netherlands on a regular basis a few years ago. Despite sharing a set of grandparents, we’re quite often chalk and cheese in our approach to life. One common interest is, of course, naturism. Sylvia, her husband and their daughters are members of a Dutch naturist club, and she’s as regular a naturist holiday taker as I am. Perhaps even more so, as opportunities are more plentiful for her. Despite our common interest, we’ve never actually holidayed together since Cap D’Agde, despite promising ourselves we’d do so.

Sylvia had her children a few years before I did, so we each went through a period of thinking ‘oh, my babies are too small for holidays, we’ll take a couple of years off from vacations’. Her daughters are now young teens, and despite them reaching that ‘awkward’ age, apparently remain keen naturists. Now that they’re almost grown, and mine are of an age where they’re at school, and with the 20th anniversary of my nude debut approaching (June, 1995: Sylvia had been to a naturist beach prior to Agde) we decided we should have an anniversary of it.

Obviously, a return to Cap D’Agde was discussed. Sylvia was more keen than me, being someone who would quite readily wear a see-through ‘chain mail’ type of dress, as often worn by patrons of Agde as ‘evening wear’, as perfectly suitable. As for the stiletto heels favoured by many ladies…I prefer flats, or something with a much lower heel. High heels are something I’ve never quite come to grips with 🙂

While I’m someone who will readily bare all on a beach, I don’t really see that type of clothing as ‘me’. 🙂

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The type of dress that can be Cap D’Agde ‘evening wear’

So, we decided on Spain for the 20th anniversary of ‘the debut’.

Sylvia has been to Vera Playa before, and stayed in the naturist Vera Playa Club Hotel, so she sort of knows the layout of the place and likes it although, like Pookes, she prefers Croatia as a naturist destination. The family generally drive from Amsterdam to Croatia each year.

 

Another way that we’re ‘chalk and cheese‘ is that, when depilation became popular, Sylvia embraced that, whereas I, as you know, favour a more natural look. 🙂 Yes, I did it once and I didn’t like it and never did it again. Sylvia, by contrast, has gone ‘bare down there’ for much of the intervening twenty years since our debut. (In 1995, shaving was much less common and we both sported a ‘natural’ look. In the intervening period, Sylvia has also tried various nipple, clit & belly piercings)

While we’ve been on the phone, dovetailing travel arrangements, she asked ‘the question’.

‘Are you still not shaving your pubes?’

Well, no!

‘You should! You should do this!’ Despite being half-English, she’s very much straightforward, straight-talking Dutch.

When I came off the phone I spoke to Mr. Keng. ‘Sylvia says I should go bare down there’.

‘Go for it’, he said, catching me off guard. ‘See what it’s like’.

‘But you prefer a natural look, as do I!’ I wailed.

‘True. But sometimes it’s about trying new things. You didn’t think you could ever be a naturist when you began, did you?’ He barely looked up from his magazine.

No, but….

‘I will if you will’, he laughed.

And so, SLN readers, I turn to you…

‘Below the fold’, as they say in some digital media circles now, you’ll find a poll which asks the question as to whether I should, or should not, ‘go bare down there’ when on holiday with Sylvia. It closes this time next week, and…well….let’s see what you think….

 

Ella

 

 

My nude debut : Introduction Supplement

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Ny naturist debut took place not so very far from this very spot. I’m fascinated by the architecture at cap D’Agde, simultaneously 1960s urban mistake, iconic style and what Le Corbusier called ‘a machine for living’.

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It’s the Heliopolis complex, of course.

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And my first ever naked swim, as reported in the previous post, was in the pool in the centre of the photo above.

A shame that Agde has (despite pockets of ‘genuine naturism’) become synonymous with sleaze and swinging.

 

Ella

My nude debut : a series

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Naturism, initially, takes us out of our comfort zone. There’s a quickening of the heartbeat involved as we make our first steps into the naked lifestyle, and it is (unless inherently exhibitionist at heart) going to be nerve-wracking. I wrote about my own debut into naturism away back when we first began the blog.

For new readers, I’ll quickly re-cap that it was at Cap D’Agde, France, when my cousin and I secured waitressing jobs for the summer through a friend of my uncle. This was the summer after I’d finished school, and about to embark on university life, and it seemed a good way to supplement my measly student grant and top up the bank account for the forthcoming freshman year at uni.

I didn’t know Agde was naturist, and those first couple of days were an eye-opener as we slaved, serving naked person after naked person, for long hours, six days a week. And then we got a day off. My cousin readily stripped off, leaving me sweating in my bikini beside the pool at Heliopolis until I could take it no more, the discomfort of the clothes, the feeling that all eyes were on me for being dressed and….I stripped off in the usual debutant manner, the bikini top removed while remaining face down, the first public appearance of my boobs and, sweating under a French summer sun and with enough comprehension of the language to know that the sign ‘Nudite Obligatoire’ demanded the bikini briefs disappeared if I was going to cool down in the pool. Off they came, a rapid heart-pounding run to the pool and a dive into the water so as to make my ‘naked in public’ moment as short as possible.

As is often the case with naturists, you forget you’re naked within an hour or so. I remember thinking it felt so natural swimming without a costume. Of course there was the same hurried dash back to my sunbed when I climbed out, but as the day went on my confidence (as much in the fact that not everyone was looking at me as anything else) grew.

We were billeted in a rather small apartment within the naturist area, my cousin and I, and from then on nudity was par for the course once our shifts were over. I’d reached the point where I’d have been happy -much to my own surprise- to have worked naked during the day, but the restaurateur had a rule that was essentially ‘when dealing with food, not in the nude’ 🙂

Twenty years and dozens of naturist holidays later as a confirmed naturist it’s all entirely ‘natural’, of course, and I think nothing of being naked in a public place (assuming the dress code permits, of course). Cap D’Agde has changed, and not for the better in my opinion. Again, I’ve been critical of it over the past three years of blogging, labelling it as having become a sordid swingers’ paradise rather than a genuine naturist location (although there are pockets of genuine naturist activity within the massive complex).

But I well remember that ‘debut’ moment. We all do. And we’ve all got a story to tell. How strange and then normal it felt. The circumstances in which the debut developed. Spur of the moment? Planned in advance?

What I’d like to do throughout 2015 is to hear your stories about your nude debut. Drop me a notecard with your story and I’ll try to appropriate models to re-enact the moment(s) in an SL context.

Don’t worry if you think your writing isn’t up to scratch, we can tweak it into ‘journalese’.

Later today (or Sunday, depending on whether we get the photos back in time), I hope to have the first of these tales published. Inspiration for the series has come from the fact that, recently, I’ve either been in conversation with, in world, or have received a notecard from different avatars in which the topic came up. We write about things that, in turn, inspire avatars to provide their own tales and fond memories of that first time.

It will be an occasional series throughout the year, if and when we receive any input from readers, and I think it’s appropriate that our own writers (being naturist is a pre-requisite of a staffing job) also tell their own stories of their entry into naturism. In the meantime, here’s a few photos that illustrate Agde away back in the days when I first made my own nude debut.

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Ella

Those naturist Polar Bare swims

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Yesterday, Cap D’Agde held its own swim event, the ‘last swim of the year’ event, as it’s styled. SLN reader Ricardo, who doesn’t say if he’s resident in Cap D’Agde right now, or if he’s the photographer, passed me these late yesterday by way of illustrating the event. bonnet-rouge-pour-les-autres_1232696_1200x800 l-important-c-est-de-participer_1232691_1200x800 les-premiers-a-l-eau-en-mode-pionnier-avec-bouteille-de_1232679_1200x800 pour-certains-le-bain-n-aura-dure-que-quelques-minutes_1232687_1200x800

 

I’m not sure what yesterday’s temperatures were, but today it seems to be a bracing 10 degrees. Chilly enough when out of the Mediterranean. Lord knows what those sea temperatures were like! Hardy, brave or merely foolish, I would nonetheless congratulate those who’ve participated in the event. There will be more Cap D’Agde related posting later today or if not, on Sunday as we gear up for another year of posting on SLN. If you’re nursing a delicate head this morning after celebrating too long, maybe you need to consider a polar bare dip, guaranteed to shake off those cobwebs and freshen you up! 🙂

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Ricardo also provided his own ‘Polar Bare’ photos for this New Year’s Day, taken at Lupe’s and at Naked Rocks.

Ella

It’s just awful!

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I don’t wish to condemn all of Cap D’Agde. There are pockets where genuine naturists enjoy genuine naturism, but some of it has become a playground for libertines, voyeurs, exhibitionists and swingers. If that’s how people wish to live, it’s not for me to condemn, but equally what began as a genuine, wholesome family orientated naturist destination has now become a magnet for those who don’t, by any stretch of the imagination, qualify as genuine naturists. What I object to is the notion that it still remains heavily associated with naturism and in the non-naturist mind, it’s representative of all naturism.

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I came across the photo (above) online and to me it represents all that is wrong with Agde. Piercings, tattoos, silicone, ludicrous clothing and….yuk! And this, unfortunately, is the image that sticks in many people’s minds when they think of naturism.

Has the time come for us to re-define the movement with a clear demarcation line between what is genuine and wholesome, and disassociate from locations like Agde, which essentially now merely a swingers’ paradise and has little to do with naturism?

Ella.

‘Adventures in Agde’

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Because of the content, Ella has deemed the series of photographs (and accompanying texts) unsuitable for SLN.

We gave you a little bit of a heads up a couple of months back, and after weeks and months of preparation we’re (i.e. myself and the two libertines involved) are almost ready to go!

‘Venus’ and ‘Mars’ Agde are, indeed, a RL/SL married couple who, shall we say, indulge in some adventures in Cap D’Agde, the very resort where Ella made her own nude debut. (Yes, and it has changed out of all recognition to become a resort for voyeurism, exhibitionism and sexual shenanigans, which is why I’ve never returned. Ella)

Responding to occasional references to Agde, ‘Venus’ and ‘Mars’ were inspired to write to tell us about their own adventures there, and to inquire whether I would help them out in the compilation of a photo album, of the SL variety, chronicling these vacations. I agreed, and thus began a lengthy process of replicating their RL Cap D’Agde adventures. And this is why my own blog, SL Fine Art Nudes, a space for glamour/erotic SL photography, has been seemingly neglected for quite a long time. It’s not because I couldn’t be bothered with it, it’s because I was so busy in SL terms that I was fully committed to recording ‘Venus’ and ‘Mars’ and undertaking innumerable photo sessions with them. And now we’re approaching the conclusion to that process.

I agree with Ella. These are photos and texts that don’t fit the usual SLN fare. But they are artistic/erotic and thus fit the remit of my own blog, so these adventures will unfold there, rather than here.

I’m now confident that we’ll probably begin this series of SL-replicated sexual adventures tomorrow night (Thursday), with the usual caveat that things can go strange when computers, internet signals and RL impinge on plans.

I’ll begin with an introduction to both ‘Venus’ and ‘Mars’, and we’ll develop the series of posts (with photos) from there.

In the meantime, here’s some profile photos I initially undertook for Venus & Mars.

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Venus

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Mars

Harry

Port Ambonne

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I’ve written, previously, about my own nude debut taking place at the Cap D’Agde naturist city, in France, more years ago now than I care to remember. 🙂

Back then, almost twenty(!) years ago, it didn’t have the reputation it has now. Then, it was simply a ‘naturist city’. You could rise in the morning, use shops, cafes, walk, drive, cycle, swim, eat and do anything else you wanted to do as part of your ‘everyday’ life, nude.

Now, whether some wish to regard it as still having ‘genuine’ naturist credentials, in parts, the public perception of it in the media is as a haven for exhibitionists, swingers, of breast implants, cock rings, tattoos, piercings and public sex.

I’ve not been back since my one and only time there, and as it has descended into some sort of ‘swingers paradise’, with displays of public sex occurring on the beach, whether that offers a realistic view of the overall vibe of the place or not, I won’t be back in the near future. If people wish to indulge in displays of public sex or whatever else, that’s their prerogative, but it isn’t for me, or my family. We prefer a quieter, more wholesome variation of naturism.

One of our readers, who wishes to contribute under the name of ‘Venus‘, after the Roman goddess, visited Cap D’Agde during the summer months, and will, in the coming weeks, beginning with a ‘column’ in SLN10, report on what she and her husband found during their vacation.

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A naturist poses at the Cap D’Agde harbour

Before we begin that series, it’s maybe worth me saying that, online, there appears to be huge numbers of photographs taken around the harbour, by the centre’s swimming pools, on its beaches and adjacent dunes, the latter seemingly being the prime locations for displays of public sex. There are also huge numbers of photos of guests getting dressed up for the evening , not, by any means abnormal, it seems to be a naturist trope, even in wholesome naturist locations, with the slight difference being that ‘getting dressed up in the evening’, in Agde, often means all manner or revealing and fetish styled outfits.

Agde was my first experience of naturism, and the first photograph of me in my birthday suit 🙂 was taken, by my cousin, she & I were working there for a summer season, at its harbour.

I’m reminded that the Blue Lagoon sim which is part of the Eden Naturopolis estate, and indeed Eden’s main harbour, have a little sense of Agde’s marina about them, but I suppose that could be said of many of SL’s harbours and marinas.

So I popped down into Blue Lagoon to take a couple of ‘selfies‘, in a sense, that, personally, contain a little of a feeling of nostalgia for that (wholesome) summer, and even by looking at the SL versions of the photos, give me a little sense of awareness and excitement of the summer I made my nude debut in public.

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Ella wanders around a very Cap D’Agde-like marina at the Blue Lagoon sim (part of the Eden Naturopolis estate)

I shall give you a word of warning now, and shall also provide a caveat emptor warning in SLN10, that this is not normal SLN styled material, and I’m still unsure about how I should approach reports filed by ‘Venus’. We will be publishing, but there remains the distinct possibility, so ‘racy’ is it, that we shall externalise the reports to a different site. Stay tuned while we internalise what has been written, which goes way, way beyond what fits into our definition of naturism and is a topic of ongoing debate in the SLN office.

Ella.

nb: there is no intent to suggest or suggest or infer that ‘Blue Lagoon’ has Cap D’Agde ‘values’. ‘Blue Lagoon’ has no poseballs, and very much fits with SLN’s definition of wholesome naturism. ‘Blue Lagoon’ is a wonderful addition to the ‘Eden Naturopolis’ family, and subscribes 100% to what I, SLN and Eden themselves would regard as proper naturist values. You will not find ANY form of sordid, exhibitionist ‘swinger’ type values at Blue Lagoon. If this is what you seek in SL, please seek it elsewhere. I wish to make it absolutely clear that ‘Blue Lagoon’ only features in a Cap D’Agde referencing posting because its marina reminded me of a RL location from almost two decades ago, at a time when Agde’s values were markedly different to those they embrace now. Thanks.