We had never been to a nude facility in Europe, although we had been to two in the states. The big difference, as I saw it anyway, was the US places were camps, and the European spot was a whole town, every store, park, or theater were clothing optional, although most folks using all of them were nude, or at least mostly nude. There were some old guys with hats, a few with scarfs, and a couple of people with shirts without pants. At the beach, where we spent most of our time, everyone was nude.
Claire had been nude in the states, but decided to just go topless at first here in France. On the whole beach, maybe three hundred people, only two other women hah bottoms on with no tops. After about an hour Claire took off the bottoms and joined the rest of us. I was coming back from the store, when I saw Claire talking to a tall, handsome fellow with dark glasses and a very dark tan. His name was Henri, and he said he was from Nice.
"That's nice," I said stupidly, regretting it the moment the words left my mouth. He smiled, tolerantly, and asked where in the states we were from. "Santa Barbara, I said, "near Los Angeles."
"That's nice," he said with a laugh. We talked with him for a while and he asked about our travels throughout other parts of Europe. I told him about Portugal and Spain, I said France as our last stop. He offered to show us around Cap d'Adge, and said he'd been coming there for over twenty years.
I couldn't help but notice that he did most of his talking, and certainly his looking at Claire, and behind his dark glasses I couldn't where his eyes were, but I figured I knew, being that her naked breasts were right in front of his eyes. Henri said they had a place right on the beach, and invited us to dinner that night.
When he introduced us to his wife I had to admit she was truly lovely, being the kind of woman who didn't need clothes to look good. She was tall, with long hair that hung to the middle of her back and had the most perfectly shaped breasts I have ever seen. Like Henri with my wife, I couldn't keep my eyes high enough to keep from embarrassing myself.
During dinner I heard the phrase "the French way" a couple of times and I almost asked what they meant by that, although I thought I knew but actually was afraid to ask.
It wasn't until after we ate that I found what "The French Way" meant, and when I told Claire it meant extramarital sex and relaxed feeling about fidelity and marriage vows, she shook her head, not believing me, but when I told her I had asked the oldest son and he smiled and said, "It means open marriage." He grinned like it was in 'in' joke. "Like you in the states call 'swinging,'" he said.
"You mean they plan to switch with us?" she asked incredulously.
"I think he's offering me his wife and expects me to return the favor." She laughed and asked what we were going to do. "When in France," I laughed.
"You'd sleep with her?" she asked. I said it would be rude to refuse an offer of hospitality and shrugged. She hit me in the arm and shook her head. "Oh no you don't," she said. "She's way too voluptuous. You're not going anywhere near her, you hear."
That night it wasn't brought up and we stayed in a room of our own, but the next day Jackie said she was going to take me to the harbor and Henri was taking Claire to the beach. Claire didn't argue and went with him and I followed his wife out to their car. She was a good guide and showed me how the naked city operated and I had to admit it was interesting and informative, explaining that in France people didn't feel ashamed of their bodies and sex. I wasn't sure why she was taking me to a shopping region and he was taking Claire to the beach, but I didn't feel like asking.
It seemed that Henri and Claire talked a lot about "the French way" during their day together and she told me that night he explained how they felt about possessiveness and marital fidelity. I asked her how she felt and she simply said,"It makes sense." We didn't talk much after that because we were always with the Lardys and it wasn't until after dinner that we got to be alone together.
