YNOT EUROPE – A long-simmering dispute between nudists and so-called “libertines” — or proponents of sexual partner-swapping — nearly boiled over during a town council meeting in Cap d’Agde, a resort on France’s Languedoc coast. The town is home to Village Naturiste, or “Naked City,” Europe’s largest clothing-optional resort.

For years, naturists have been upset about what they call the “disfigurement” of the area by an incursion of swinger clubs and hotels, which they say have destroyed the tranquil, family oriented atmosphere of the resort. Two years ago, the hostility erupted into arson attacks on several clubs. The attacks were blamed on nudist fundamentalists.

Although the confrontation at the town council meeting was much more peaceful, the 30-member, fully clothed, nudist contingent had no trouble making its viewpoint known. Worse than the public sex acts and “voyeurist” and “exhibitionist” behavior of the libertines, they told the council, is the way swingers walk about clothed, mocking the naturist lifestyle.

“We bought a flat here 34 years ago because we wanted to live naked, to live with the sun,” one member of the naturist group told the council. “We wanted a natural life. Now, we are surrounded by wild animals.”

Another said, “There are often more people walking around dressed than undressed…. If you are just an ordinary nudist, they stare at you as if you were something bizarre.”

Since its founding 40 years ago, Village Naturiste has developed a private, two-kilometre-long beach, port and marina, camps sites, apartments, hotel, shops, restaurants, bars, salons, post office and bank. All are textile-free areas. The spot attracts as many as 40,000 tourists at a time.

Within the past decade, a phalanx of hotels and apartment buildings with names like Les Jardins d’Eden or Les Jardins du Babylon has moved in. Initially Village Naturiste allowed the development of libertine establishments in the interests of commerce. Now, however, the overt sexuality of the swingers has gotten out of control, spilling over into inappropriate areas devoted to families, the naturists contend.

The town’s mayor and member of Parliament, Gilles d’Ettore, told the protestors no formal complaints had been received this year, and the Cap d’Agde council already has done everything it can to enforce decency in the clothing-optional zone by passing laws to ban minors from establishments that cater to libertines. The two groups will have to settle matters among themselves.

“We didn’t invent partner-swapping or libertine behavior in Cap d’Agde,” d’Ettore said. “This has been a social trend for 10 years. I refuse to make value judgments on the sexual habits of other people. I can’t put a policeman behind all 40,000 nudists.”