Naturist village condemned by Bordeaux court for having too many people
Three residents of France’s largest naturist village say it is becoming too crowded
Naturists prefer to live in sparsely populated, natural spaces and the overcrowding at Euronat is threatening this, the complainants say
Oleg Elkov/Shutterstock
The largest naturist village in France has been condemned by a court in Bordeaux after local residents complained that the village was hosting three times as many people as originally allowed.
Euronat, which is located on 335 hectares of pine forest in Gironde (Nouvelle-Aquitaine), was condemned on January 30 by the court of appeal.
‘Illegal housing and overcrowding’
The case came after three village residents, and the mairie of nearby village Grayan-et-l'Hôpital, had accused Euronat of having illegally constructed some of its housing, and of allowing three times more people into the village than the 5,000 allowed by prefectural decrees.
The decrees, which date back to 1973, stipulated the maximum number of people allowed. The complainants argue that the village is breaking the rules of these decrees, and that shared spaces are becoming too crowded as a result of the influx of people.
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Court rulings
The court banned Euronat from carrying out any new construction of bungalows or camping pitches without compensating for it by removing another.
It also ordered Euronat to pay €30,000 to each of three resident complainants for “loss of enjoyment” of the village, in addition to compensation for economic damage, ranging from €19,000 to almost €53,000.
The case had been previously dismissed by the Bordeaux court in October 2022, but the complainants won this time in the court of appeal.
Director of Euronat, Jean-Michel Lorefice, told Le Figaro that he was “amazed” at the decision, because “it goes against the judgment of the first instance”.
He said that “Euronat fulfilled its obligations and respected the administrative procedures relating to the construction of new bungalows”. The centre will now appeal to the Cour de Cassation, and said it regretted the three residents’ “hostility”.
‘The original spirit of the place’
But Jean Fourcade, vice-president of the IFE-AIDE residents’ association, of which the three residents are members, said: “Density at Euronat is higher than expected. Some owners consider that there are too many people and that this distorts the original spirit of the place.”
Mr Fourcade said that the legal action was not related to the ‘naturist’ element of the site, although naturists (as opposed to nudists) greatly value a strong relationship with nature, and prefer to live in sparsely populated places.
