nudité

There is no doubt that the French have an obsession for nudity. From early times French artists have had obsession for painting, drawing or calving the human body ‘nude’. It seems mastery of the nude was essential for the aspiring artist - or the aspiring perv.

A little known fact(?) is that the French were the inventors of nudist camps. They now have nude nightclubs where more than your arms flap around while you dance. There are numerous nude beaches but don’t describe them as “au naturel” as this is used only for food cooked without preparation. In French, nude beaches are called “plages nudists”. I am guessing that means 'beware plague of nudists ahead'. They even love their nude pétanque (Yes Hux – I did try to find out where I could play but no luck). As most know, every French movie must have a nude scene (although I am not sure how they work that into a children’s cartoon) but it is the only place I know where they show x-rated movies on free-to-air TV after midnight (for some strange reason I couldnt get to sleep at night).

To just show how liberal the French are compared to us is when it comes to sex shops. For us they are something to be hidden down small alleys (not that I know about this of course), frowned on by the community and just tolerated by Councils as long as the buildings are not advertising or even making any real statement about what is inside. In France – not only is the shop located in the main street next to the patisserie shop, there are well displayed windows and large A-frames in the street advertising ‘vente gadgets’. And just in case the neon signs were not enough do you think our Council would approve the following street sign?

Not that there is anything wrong with that!