We used to spend our holidays in the South of France, at Le Lavandou, in a magnificent campsite - and we had never given naturism a thought: we knew that there were people who went about in the nude in clubs, but they seemed to be freaks.
My wife had abandoned her bikini top in the early 70s, like most women in those days, but that was as far as we went.
Then a club to which we belonged, the Touring Club de France, started publishing in its internal magazine articles about naturism, simply because their general theme was touring and holidays, and one of their editors happened to be a keen naturist.
Reading those articles, we immediately identified with the ideas mentioned, and we thought, well, why not give it a try after all - perhaps they are not freaks after all, who knows?
Our next step was to order a guide book to French nude beaches, advertised in that magazine. When we received it, we realized that what was described as one of the prettiest nude beaches in France was only a couple of miles from our camping site at Le Lavandou : La plage du Layet (to which I have devoted a post in the "Beaches" section of this forum).
So we decided to give it a try. As we walked down to the beach under the cover of eucalyptus trees, it became obvious that there were a lot of people on the beach - and that they were all nude, men, women and children, and that they seemed happy and totally unconcerned - just like us, minus the bathing trunks.
Within seconds of setting foot on the beach, my wife had pulled down her bikini bottom and was walking towards the sea. I have to admit that, although I had tried to be prepared for this, the sight of my wife strolling nude down the beach was just a tiny bit too exciting for me at first, and it took me a little longer before I found the courage to bare all and make a rush for the sea.
Ten minutes later, we had forgotten that we were nude.
We loved the place, loved the people that we met, and when it was time to go, my wife remarked casually that the next day we must come earlier to enjoy the sunshine a bit longer. It had become obvious for both of us that this would henceforth be our usual beach.
And that was it.
The following year we decided to visit a naturist camping-site on a bank holiday weekend to see what it was like. It was La Sablière, and we were immdiately converted.
Our only regret is that we had not tried naturism earlier.