My 2016 Summer Naturist Holiday in France

[nuduke]

You really seem to be getting naked in nature a lot.  Lucky chap!
John

[JOhnGw]

Saturday 2nd July

This looks like being a perfect sunny day after the two days of storms.
Morning breakfast on the patio followed by a bit of camera work for my Nature and Naturism video. Actually this was very frustrating as there are some striking black and white butterflies which I was too slow to record.

               
The flag celebrating last night's victory and trying to record some butterflies

In the afternoon it got cloudy, started raining and I fell asleep after too many beers, only to miss the sunshine when it returned.
Again we had a textile dinner in the restaurant as they specialise in the local food and wine – as do all ten locations in the Naturisme et Terroirs group of family run naturist holiday centres but we both undressed as soon as we were back at the chalet.
Incidentally we have now visited six of the ten Naturisme et Terroirs centres – they are all completely different but all friendly and welcoming.


Sunday 3rd July

After the usual naked breakfast M dressed for a drive out to a swimming hole on the Esteron, which I failed to find.
We then returned to the parking by the footpath to the waterfall that I visited alone on Friday. The water level was now well down so I had another short naked walk along the path, this time crossing the second ford while M waited enjoying the beauty spot.
Towards the beginning of the drive M asked me whether I ought to have dressed to which I replied that plenty of men will be driving shirtless and after that nothing more was said about my nudity.

After that we spent our time mostly lazing around. I had another swim and got some more footage for my nature and naturism video - it will keep me well occupied doing the editing, watch this space but don't hold your breath.

                               

We then sorted all the clothing into three bags – dirty, needed for hotel travelling and not needed.

At last the evening was balmy enough for a naked dinner on the chalet terrace finishing up our supplies before the last four textile nights in hotels on the way back.
M finished up the Clairette de Die as aperitif while I had a beer, followed by chicken and chips from the centre's kitchen with a light salad. After the cheese course we had fruit and cake for dessert followed, by petit cafés all washed down with Côtes de Blaye.

[JOhnGw]

Monday 4th July

I had a perfect naked morning packing the car and breakfasting on the terrace, as usual.
I drove the car up to reception to hand in the keys but parked in the wrong place to be able to continue my drive naked without potentially creating an adverse reaction from the management.

Apart from being all bundled up in clothing we had a hour's detour because the gendarmerie had closed the road just north of Sisteron adding an hour to the journey resulting in our arriving at Lyon during the rush hour and then to cap it all the road to our hotel was closed and we got lost trying to follow the diversion.

The day ended much better than it began however with a wonderful naked evening with some friends from the Naturist Corner forum on the terrace of their home in the hills looking the city of Lyon as far as Mont Blanc in the distance.


Tuesday 5th July

Before breakfast we agreed that we didn't fancy being tourists in the heat of a Lyon day so we decided to move on to the Loire and I didn't get my swim in the hotel pool. The latter didn't bother me much as I couldn't see my way to getting away with a naked swim in such a publicly visible pool. However I did get a “dare” type picture on the access balcony to our room.



Over breakfast we discovered that the duty manger was a Portugese football supporter and had a interesting discussion about the prospect for Thursday evening's match. If his analysis is correct Wales could have an easy win.

We then had an easy autoroute drive up to Fontevraud where we had reserved a room in the Croix Blanche hotel. This hotel is a favourite of ours, having a superb restaurant (for foodies) and a pool where I can unofficially swim naked.


Picture from a previous visit

Needless to say I had a nude swim before dinner.

[JOhnGw]

Wednesday 6th July

Absolutely no naturism today.
Had a very successful morning wine buying and shopping for delicacies we can'r easily get at home but when we got back to the hotel I had a totally frustrating swim as I ha to wear a costume and the pool had been over-chemicaled and my eyes were extremely sore to the extent that I was worried about driving home tomorrow.
However M had some eye drops which did the trick but after a pleasant dinner I was frustrated to find that the local bar which might have shown the Wales match had closed – I watched Wales lose naked in the bedroom instead.


Thursday 7th July

Another textile day driving back to Ouistreham for tomorrow morning's ferry.
When I paid the hotel bill n the morning I mentioned the chemicals in the pool and was informed that the man had arrived and was dealing with the problem, but by then it was too late for the pre-breakfast skinny-dip which I previously enjoyed here.
We did our final wine buying at Chinon and got to the Phare Brasserie and Hotel overlooking the ship lock and lighthouse for the Caen canal in mid afternoon.

     
Pictures from a previous visit

While we were sitting enjoying beer and coffee respectively and watching all the classic sports cars coming off the afternoon ferry on their way to Le Mans, M told me that she had noticed that the balcony of room number 1 at the Croix Blanche hotel was ideal for naked use – I can see we will be upgrading to that room next time we visit.
After a pleasant meal in one of the restaurants and a coffee and calvados back at the Phare hotel we went up for an early night.


Friday 8th July

We were up at 6:30 to catch the ferry where we had breakfast in the ferry restaurant followed by a pleasant crossing to Portsmouth.
However I muse remember never again to book a Friday morning crossing as the traffic on the A34 and M4 was absolutely terrible and the journey took almost 2 hours more thn it should have done.

I'm typing this final entry on Saturday morning in between the usual naked morning housekeeping tasks.

End of holiday blog

[JOhnGw]

The first two short bits of video from my trip are now viewable at https://vimeo.com/174643853 and https://vimeo.com/174079163

[Greenbare Woods]

Nice vacation John.   I noticed that you seemed cautious about being seen so I'm guessing that is not a normally clothing optional area.  The coming car chased you off the fire escape, apparently.   

[jbeegoode]

Nice vacation John.   I noticed that you seemed cautious about being seen so I'm guessing that is not a normally clothing optional area.  The coming car chased you off the fire escape, apparently.

The passing cars can't cross over. They probably aren't looking. The thin post partially covers. The accumulation of the steps on the staircase tend to meld together at that angle, so there was enough to be covered in at the least the waist area. Heading up stairs would seem the best solution to being covered. I surmise that your trip up those stairs was the first time and that you didn't try it clothed first. Is it a fire escape? It seems odd to have a circular stairway outside of the building.

There are another, more useful, set of stairs in the background.

Could you clear up the detective work and give us some more information about just where this is? Is it a hotel parking lot or front door approach that is closer to you, or what is happening here?

Where were the woods? It doesn't look risky, but you seemed uncomfortable.
Sherlock to the sly fox,
Thank-you,
Jbee

[eyesup]

These spots look familiar! I remembered them from earlier posts in this thread.

see this Reply #21 on: June 26, 2016
http://freerangenaturism.com/forum/index.php?topic=811.msg4955#msg4955
third photo down to see JOhn checking the oil.

and this Reply #22 on: June 28, 2016
http://freerangenaturism.com/forum/index.php?topic=811.msg4968#msg4968
1st photo to see the circular stairway. Circular stairs aren't very functional. They are either aesthetic treatments or required because of a lack of space. I've never met a circular stairway that I liked!

And I am certain I saw where you were standing behind the hedge above the wall in a previous post. I couldn't find it.

Hope you had a great trip. It looked like you had good luck with the weather for the whole trip.

Duane

[JOhnGw]

The weather was rather poor for the first week at Euronat and we had a couple of days with long thunderstorms at La Chandelalar but at least ir was warmer than at home.

Most of the pictures which I posted were frame grabs from my raw video footage.
You will probably recognise some more of them in my latest one of my abortive drive to the waterfall which is posted at https://vimeo.com/175658179

[jbeegoode]

Video, first I get the impression that the film was recorded on the wrong side and then realize that I'm looking at a British car with the steering on the "wrong  " side. Then, I want to shout out , "JOhn, you left your backpack at the river!"

Actually, I loved looking at the more wild French countryside. We mostly see, places with people, antiques
and agriculture. The quiet nature and seeming solitude is very inviting.

Thanks again,
Jbee

[JOhnGw]

Jbee - you have notice all my continuity problems.
I had started out recording on the basis of a walk to the waterfall but was frustrated by the high river levels and ended up with much curtailed footage which I had to make the best of.

I'm glad some of it was worthwhile, though.

[JOhnGw]

I have now edited and published my latest Naturist Naturalist video from my holiday.

It can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/176567758

[nuduke]

I enjoyed your video, JOhn and agree with the sentiment of and inspiration for it!
John

[JOhnGw]

I have, at last, published the final video from my holiday of some of my walks at Le Haut Chandelalar.

[eyesup]

Great walk in the mountains.

Hope all is ok, you appeared to have some kind of leg pain. I think you have mentioned this before but the recollection avoids me.

Did you find a good spot to cool off in the stream?

Enjoyed the video.
Duane