WWhen was the last time you were naked in public? As a child at the bathing lake or as an adult in the sauna? Maybe in a brief, involuntary moment at the pool, when your jeans fall but your bathing suit hangs below your knees? Campsite La Plage des Templiers in the Ardèche gorges in southern France is a place where people can go naked for weeks if they wish. While eating, bathing or playing boules, while dancing or at work. But why does this place attract people from different corners of Europe? Just because they can carry a few pieces of cloth less here than in other places? And why do they call it naturism?
In the car park: F, NL, D and the abbreviations of some Swiss cantons. Some nations seem to prefer being naked than others. The way down into the gorge is steep. Several hundred meters of altitude separate the parked cars from the river bank where the tents are, and this distance can only be covered on foot. The descent over loose rock is like a via ferrata, the ropes as handrails make it little easier. Only the luggage is allowed to go down into the valley with the cable winch. Once at the bottom, there are neither roads nor cars – or cell phone reception. Is that why so many young people camp here? Because it’s simply too steep for older students? Or a digital detox?