Cap D'Agde - a little review.
This is just our experience of the place (your experience might be different). We didn't get to do everything we wanted, but we had great fun and have things to try next time!
We stayed inside the 'village', in an apartment in Heliopolis, one of several accommodation blocks (maybe worth Googling for a Cap d'Agde map..). The alternatives are some hotels in the village or camping on the adjacent linked campsite (Rene Oltra), or completely outside in accommodation in Agde itself (hotels or AirBNB). We booked through an agent recommended in a thread in the Fab forums - Google 'Apparts Naturiste by Béatrice' for her website, but of course there are others. We booked in January and she had lots of bookings already for the high season of mid-June to the end of August. Outside of then we understand that Cap is either a bit quieter (in Spring) or a bit cooler (September onwards).
We were there for seven nights, giving us six full days in the village.
First, the nudity...
Well we went with the intention of experiencing that side of things and we dived straight in! We were naked most of the day. If you want you can go totally naked 24/7, but we found that first thing in the morning there are a few people in sarongs or shorts/tshirts, heading to the patisserie for bread and croissants or an early pitch on the beach, then during the day most people will be naked until early evening - everywhere - in bars, shops, cafes. If you are self-conscious there are still a few people who prefer to wear sarongs during the day, so you wouldn't look out of place if you did (plus there are staff at shops and cafes etc who will be dressed). Also worth noting that cafes and bars prefer you to have something to sit on - a towel or wear a sarong.
However, at night it is different! Very few naked people because everyone dresses up to go out. Men in shirts and pants (rather than shorts), sometimes in fetish wear, but the ladies.. wow.. in everything you can imagine - mostly club-wear, lingerie, mostly very revealing, some fetish-wear... anything goes. And believe me, there are people of all sizes, shapes and ages, from super-fit to super-old. It's eyeopening.
So what did we get up to...
We hit the beach a couple of times, where everyone is naked. The beach is split and you enter it somewhere near the middle. To the right is naturist, including families. To the left it has sections of the beach for naturists, 'adult' (ie swingers), gay, and finally further along 'textile' (ie clothed - we didn't go that far). We passed the swingers beach and spotted some outdoor shenanigans, but it's worth noting that the beach is patrolled and you are actually not allowed to have sex in public, so you might get a telling off by the patrols. It didn't seem to bother the people we saw! It's also worth noting that it's open for couples and singles which means that you can spot the naughty action because of the crowd of single guys surrounding anyone who is playing... (not really our thing). The sea is lovely for naked swimming, but not as warm as we expected! (warmer in Rhodes last year). We didn't find anyone hiring out loungers or parasols - you need to take your own or lay on the sand. There are a couple of bars right on the beach and we'd recommend 'Manna' for food etc, and you can pay to use their loungers too (actually in the front of the bar).
If you don't fancy laying on the sand on the beach and need a pool to lounge round, there are some you can pay to enter if, like us, you aren't staying at one of the hotels which have their own pool. We found a nice pool called Kamasutra at the beach end of the Port Nature building. It wasn't cheap (40 euros per couple for the day, which included a drink each), but the pool and loungers were nice. Also at that pool there was a 'sauna' downstairs - basically a small swinging club - and for a bit extra you could use the pool and the sauna. Sadly we didn't this time (see below).
Pool Party! Or 'pool orgy' in reality. Absolutely awesome! This is held at Jardin de Babylone twice weekly in the afternoon and is a MUST. Imagine an Ibiza pool party; DJ, pumping music, loungers, bar etc. but everyone naked. And when things get warmed up, people just start having sex around you, with you... Such an experience. Your entrance fee of 30 euros per couple gets you a first drink each, but if you want a lounger or pad you need to get there early.
Foam party! (or 'mousse party') This is held at the Glamour club in Heliopolis complex and runs every afternoon. It's a big party with a jacuzzi, seating areas, VIP area (waiters and nice loungers), DJ stand, and large standing area with a dancing/pole platform in the middle. Once again, everyone naked, the party gets noisy, everyone dancing and drinking... but where's the foam? It is actually in a slightly enclosed area to the right-hand side which gets flooded with foam every few minutes. It get full of people, close together, covered in foam, kissing, dancing, touching, having sex... Then showers to wash off and go for a drink and a dance, then back to the foam! You have to go!
Dining, drinking and shopping...
Each 'block' or area in the village have shopping and dining places and bars. Lots of the shops are selling sexy club clothing for women and men, but beware of the prices!
It seemed to us that the 'place to be' in the evenings when we were there was Port Ambonne, next to the harbour. We regularly spent time in 'La Pilouterie' and 'OLOUNDGE' bars having a drink, dancing and people watching, and we met up with some Fab people for drinks too. And wow - people definitely like to parade along the harbour in their sexy outfits! Next to there at the end of the Port Nature building are a few more bars worth visiting. At first we loved Melrose bar (lively, great club music, girls dancing on the bar, great vibe), until we noticed that they were charging different prices for the same drinks during the night, and the bar staff were just a bit rude and a bit ignorant. So we went to the next bar along, which was great! Our advice - try them all. Even near the end of our stay we found some bars we hadn't even seen previously. Price for a glass of champagne/prosecco and a beer - between 13 and 20 euros.
We probably only scraped the surface of the dining options, but we liked Ghymnos in the Heliopolis complex and Mississippi at the beach end of Port Nature.
What we didn't get round to...
Well sadly after a few days of pool/foam parties, meets and quite a lot of sex we were a bit, well, shagged out! (such lightweights - we're kind of used to a couple of play dates a month!) We had plans to visit a sauna (probably 2et2 which is in Port Ambonne) and a club (possibly Tantra at the beach end of Port Nature next to the Kamasutra pool, or Glamour), but unfortunately we didn't make it. This time. But there's always next year! Maybe we should pace ourselves next time haha.
On the negative side...
Sometimes it feels like the place is a huge car park. Don't expect beautiful boulevards lined with flowers and trees - it could be prettier. It also seems that toilets are a secondary feature in most of the bars - often one loo for everyone in the place, regardless of how big the bar or how many people they have there. We'd have liked to be able to hire a lounger on the beach, but nobody was renting them out that we found. And the prices are high compared to outside the village - naturally considering it's an enclosed place (if you're self catering, pay a visit to the Hyper U supermarket in Agde before you arrive).
These are relatively minor gripes and outweighed by the feeling of freedom and openness you have there.
You have to go!
EPs x
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