Naked swimming in Paris

Ever since Adam met Eve under the apple tree things have gotten strings attached and you need to worry about your socks and undies.

Who would have thought that from paradise to our industrial world we needed to shroud ourselves in apparel. You should not wear anything under water. But our modern culture who made disguise in different forms a master art form, has left us with little more than polyester fabrics made to cover those parts that seem so attractive to bird watchers, under water.

The official culture of nudism did not start yesterday and the Greeks met their gods in their bodies. What happened was that some religions invented shame as the foundation of a marketing strategy to sell clothes, modern materialism and consumerism, hello.  

We haven't gotten over it yet. In recent times the Germans invited themselves to nudist culture that was expressed through an approach to honor the body divine and expose the skin to the sun. FKK or Frei kultur was founded in 1903.

There wasn't anything sexual about it, it was just beautiful. In France the first nudist association was created after the war in 1950, the Fédération Française de Naturisme (F.F.N.) was founded by Albert Lecocq who already had pre-war experience in organizing nudist camps and events.

The idea was: "Par naturisme, nous entendons l'ensemble des règles qui rapprochent l'individu d'une vie naturelle". So there was no message other than live naturally.

Today's world, however, has inclined to nudge the natural approach with some cynic response, often skeptical, without taking into account that every one was born naked and, unless willed, will die naked. Vous êtes naturiste? asks the goggle eyed president. Depuis ma naissance, I answer in an amniotic voice. He understands.

We are well received by the prefecture de police, the mairie and the mayor. So what about naked swimming? The only club that offers this divine experience goes through the torment of imposing swimming caps for everyone, when the idea was to be "à  poile" or "oilpà " as the verlain goes selon a French professor, in other words, wear no strings, but you need the rubber cup on your head or else....

The contradictory contraption is an obvious nuisance and the needed humor to accept the contradiction will be left to those who understand the workings of this strange world. The association des naturistes regroups 400 members and uses the Roger Le Gall pools (there is a 50m pool and a 25m pool inside) 3 times a week.

You can go a couple of times for free to see if you like the experience. It is worth while. The 50 m pool during the summer under the sky of Paris is really sweet to swim in. You have saunas and aquagym in another section, but lying outside in a summer night, is really cool. Swimming naked gives a sensation of the body you cannot have if you're covered by polyester.

You feel your body smoothly in the water, and even though the swimming cap remains a contradiction, it is at least half of what you would get diving into a natural lake by yourself, stripped of the weight of our useless apparel.