"There are too many people": France's largest naturist village condemned by the Bordeaux Court of Appeal
Attacked by three residents who accuse it of welcoming three times more people than initially planned, Euronat is defending itself. Condemned by the Court of Appeal on January 30, the largest naturist village in France has appealed to the Court of Cassation.
The largest naturist village in France is in the sights of the courts for the second time. Already accused by the town hall of Grayan-et-l'Hôpital , where it has settled on 335 hectares of Gironde pine forest, of having illegally built some of its accommodation, Euronat is also being sued by three of its resident owners. It accuses the naturist centre of now receiving three times more people than the 5,000 users mentioned in the prefectural decrees, dated 1973, when they purchased their bungalow between 1990 and 2011. An increase in the number of naturists welcomed which implies that the shared spaces are also three times more populated.
Having been dismissed by the Bordeaux judicial court in October 2022, the three applicants won their case before the Bordeaux Court of Appeal on 30 January. In a ruling that we were able to consult, the Bordeaux Court of Appeal prohibited Euronat from carrying out any new construction of bungalows or camping pitches without compensating for it by removing another. In respect of the loss of enjoyment of the three residents, Euronat was also ordered to pay 30,000 euros to each of them, in addition to compensation for economic loss ranging from around 19,000 euros to almost 53,000 euros.
Also read: Are you more of a “nudist” or a “naturist”?
A decision that the director of Euronat, Jean-Michel Lorefice, told us he learned "with shock" as it "goes against the judgment of first instance" . Maintaining "that Euronat fulfilled its obligations and respected the administrative procedures concerning the construction of new bungalows" , the naturist center announced that it was appealing to the Court of Cassation, regretting the "hostility" of the three residents. "The density at Euronat is higher than expected," retorts Jean Fourcade, vice-president of the IFE-AIDE association, which defends the interests of the owners and of which the three applicants are members. Some owners consider that there are too many people and that this distorts the initial spirit of the place."
According to Jean Fourcade, this legal procedure has no connection with the naturist nature of the place. However, unlike nudists , naturists advocate a relationship with nature and generally prefer intimate and sparsely populated places. "If Euronat had been a non-naturist center, our three members would have contested it in court too," he insists nonetheless.
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