Nudists and swingers fighting it out in France's 'Naked City'

"Traditional" nudists in France's 'Naked City'—the town of Cap d'Agde on the Langedoc coast—are at loggerheads with a new wave of naturists who advocate free sex and partner-swapping.

Cap d'Agde is known as France's "Naked City" thanks to its large nudist population.

But tension arose recently when locals complained that the nudist quarter had been overrun by raunchy hotels and that children had been confronted with people indulging in sexual acts in public, according to the Independent.

The exhibitionist behaviour has been blamed on the "libertines"— a group of swingers who have descended on the town in recent years.
 
In fact, the group has been accused of walking about in their clothes and mocking the "real" nudists, said the paper.

"When the sun shines, there is an area of Cap d'Agde which turns into the European capital of free sex,” the Telegraph quoted Florence Denestebe, an independent local councillor, as telling a council meeting recently.

She has urged the mayor to intervene before there was an "explosion of libertine behaviour in non-nudist areas" of the town.

Traditional nudists support the move. One told the paper that they had moved to the area because they wanted "a natural life" but that they had ended up living "surrounded by wild animals".

The mayor said that he would consider the complaints but had already done all he could to keep the two groups apart.

Two years ago anger of the influx of swingers led to two arson attacks on hotels that hosted libertine parties.