Naturisme!
Public Land & Private Finance on Gironde Coast
Centre Hélio-Marin de Montalivet (CHM) and Euronat sit on the same shore but tell two very different stories about how public land, naturist ideals, and private money have intertwined since WWII.
Two origins, two models:
CHM (~1950): born in post-war moment as renewal in France — cooperative, egalitarian, community-led. Private-Equity was decades away (Neo-liberal, Thatcherite).
Euronat (~1975): a second-generation, purpose-built naturist “village” conceived during the holiday-village boom, legally framed with a bail à construction — a long land lease where the operator must build and maintain facilities (18–99 years; no tacit renewal). Légifrance
Temporal gap maps a broader shift: from social movement to managed commodity.
Law - quietly - shapes economics
French public-property law draws a hard line between domaine public (devoted to public use/service) and domaine privé (the rest). Communes can withdraw land from public use (désaffectation / déclassement) and then lease it like any owner. Conseil d'État+1
Euronat–Grayan-et-l’Hôpital: long bail à construction on communal domaine privé → heavy initial investment, administrative oversight, and long-term stability; lower annual rent per hectare in exchange for duration. Légifrance
CHM–Vendays-Montalivet: shorter bail commercial (9-year logic) on domaine privé → more “market” rent setting and easier renewal cycles, but fewer built-in public-interest levers than a BEA/concession would offer. Légifrance
(Where a commune seeks stronger public-interest control it can opt for a BEA — a public-law, 18–99-year instrument reserved for operations of public interest. Légifrance)
Follow the money:
Both communes earn significant lease income from naturism:
Euronat (Grayan): 2021 lease around €558,865. With a measured footprint near 2.67 km² (267 ha), that’s ≈ €2,090/ha/year.
CHM (Vendays-Montalivet): widely reported at ≈€700,000/year. With a measured footprint near 1.3 km² (130 ha), that’s ≈ €5,400/ha/year — 2–3× Euronat’s yield per hectare.
Numbers vary with what’s counted as “leased” land, but a pattern appears: Vendays-Montalivet commune monetises more densely; Grayan-et-l’Hôpital commune trades rent for long-term stability. (land-lease payments are distinct from taxes; on true domaine public, occupation also triggers a statutory redevance).* Légifrance
People in middle
Behind leases are residents, long-term occupants, seasonal workers and local associations. As naturist villages professionalised, pressure points emerge: tenure insecurity for long-term occupants, standardisation of experience and rising prices — issues widely reported in the French press and, in some cases, litigated.
Where archival or judicial records document corruption around lease negotiations, that raises obvious questions about the validity of later renewals and underscores a need for stronger due-diligence before 2027 decisions.
2027: steward or rentier?
Vendays-Montalivet faces a simple but profound choice when CHM’s lease cycle next comes up:
Renew — on public-interest covenants (audited ESG data, resident-rights charter, indexed rent with transparency), or require operator to re-charter as a public-utility vehicle (FRUP).
Re-tender — decline renewal and openly compete the lease, inviting mission-driven bidders (e.g. recognised public-utility foundations) to offer higher rent + measurable social and environmental performance.
All paths start with due diligence:
Independent valuation of land and improvements;
Reviews of operator compliance and ownership chains;
Stakeholder consultations (residents, workers, associations, taxpayers);
Updated environmental impacts (water, waste, biodiversity);
Publication of lease terms and annual performance indicators.
Big Question
Can a commune act as guardian of shared meaning and ecological integrity, or will it behave merely as a rent-seeking landlord?
Naturism on Gironde coast began as a civic philosophy about equality, simplicity and nature. The legal instruments a commune chooses — commercial lease, BEA, building-lease — decide whether those values remain living practice or become marketing copy.