At the end of Summer it was announced that Le Domaine de la Sablière, one of the best naturist resorts in France, was being sold: Gaby Cespedes, who founded the resort nearly 50 years ago, now wishes to retire and has put it up for sale.
Although the site is stupendous it is in a partly protected area and the resort cannot host more than 520 pitches or bungalows - this may sound a lot, but remember that La Sablière is huge and covers over 150 acres. The current asking price is 12.5 milion euros, about 11 million pounds.
Determined that this resort would not follow the path of other smaller ones that have become textile over the past few years a number of frequent visitors are trying to buy the resort. See https://lasabliere.info/ . They are at the moment gathering pledges to invest money in the venture. So far not quite 900,000 euros (not quite 800,000 pounds) have been pledged by 86 different people (mostly from France, with Belgium next, and then the UK and Germany). - which is a lot, but is still a long way off the mark.
Although Gaby Cespedes has long been a very active figure in the French naturist movement and is determined that La Sablière should remain naturist once she has sold it, she cannot be expected to bridge the gap unless a lot more money is pledged.
I'll keep you informed.
The latest news is that La Sablière is about to be sold for a price very close to the asking price (12 million euros whereas the asking price was 12.5 million euros); the new owners have pledged to keep La Sablière as a naturist resort for next year only (2018) before turning it into a textile resort 🙁
The loss to naturism will be tremendous - although for some reason visitors to La Sablière seem to be mostly French, with few foreign visitors. I am attaching a photo showing the beach and the river seen from the bungalows at the top; this gives you some idea of the slopes that this very large resort covers (150 acres). Annie and I fondly recall walking nude along the river to the other naturist campside next door, La Genèse.
And another photo of me (sorry about that) on the beach at La Sablière on the shore of River Cèze. I did post more photos of La Sablière in the Media Centre over the past few years.
Sorry to hear of another naturist site in France being sold and going textile. 🙂
MJ Tacey
La Sablière did not stay on the market for long, as several offers were made to buy the resort. Only one offer was by a naturist group, SOCNAT (which owns several naturist sites, Les Aillos, Le clapotis, Le petit Arland, Montalivet and La Genèse), but they were not ready to invest more than 8 million, so that it was a textile group that carried the day.
One of the advantages of La Sablière was that it was next to La Genèse, another naturist resort covering 26 hectares (65 acres) along the same river, which turned the whole place into a huge naturist area.
Currently there is a war of words going on. The sales agreement will only be signed early next year, which enables the current owner to state that "La Sablière has not been sold" - which is technically true.
This encourages the group of naturists trying trying to buy La Sablière to keep gathering pledges to invest in the resort, with a couple of months to go. The pledges are still rising, but very slowing, and are now just above 1 million euros - another 11 to go. In other words, hopeless.
In any case it is certain that La Sablière will remain a naturist resort in 2018. La Sablière is (soon to be "was") a very special place, the sort of place that I am happy to have visited, with its pros and cons. If you're planning to come to France next year, why not enjoy that experience, if only for a couple of days, while it's still available? La Sablière is off to the west of the Rhône valley in South East France. Take into account that it is not a good place if you cannot walk up and down easily. More info at http://www.naturist-corner.net/community/index.php?topic=4807
Since la Sabliere and Le Genese are opposite each other across the River where most people swim, how will the textiles cope with all the clearly visible nudes?
JOhn
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionaries
Since la Sabliere and Le Genese are opposite each other across the River where most people swim, how will the textiles cope with all the clearly visible nudes?
This is one of the problems that this sale will bring... Naturists had been used to treating both resorts almost as one, going freely from one to the other naked. It is no secret that for the last couple of years the restaurant at La Sablière has been rather poor, and that many naturists from La Sablière just walked over to the restaurant at La Genèse.
We have stayed at La sabliere and it is indeed a very nice place, so we agree that it is sad that it is disappearing as a naturist site. I haven't done the sums yet but €12M is heck of a big price 😮 - I guess the buyers will get their money back but purely from a business perspective, will they get it back quicker as a textile site?
I hope this is not a trend that gathers momentum in France as it is such a wonderful country with wonderful facilities for naturist camping.
Newforestcple
I hope this is not a trend that gathers momentum in France as it is such a wonderful country with wonderful facilities for naturist camping.
It is true that naturist resorts in France tend to go though a sort of cycle: they are created as simple resorts offering very little, then they develop and go upmarket, and then one day the owners sell it their property, usually because they are not getting any younger - which is the case with Gaby Cespedes, who owns La Sablière; usually in such cases the children of the owners are not passionate enough to keep running the resort, and they'd much rather have the cash. The resorts are then sold with all that has been accumulated over a few decades, and the asking price is obviously very high.
Since there are no naturist holiday groups in France powerful enough to buy them, they fall into the hands of one of the big holiday groups that cater for textile resorts.
Fortunately new resorts are being created from time to time, but with few amenities at first - and then the cycle can start again, I suppose.
The only group with any financial clout in the field of naturism in France is SocNat, which runs Montalivet, La Genèse and Le Clapotis (and also has some sort of finger, I believe, in both Le Petit Arlane and Les Aillos). But their offer for La Sablière was a long way below the asking price. Similarly the group of holiday-makers pledging money to buy La Sablière has (I think) no chance of getting anywhere close to the 12 million euros required: after an initial period of enthusiasm in the fist weeks, the increase in the money pledged ihas been very slow.
Still, La Sablière will be naturist again in 2018 (perhaps for the last time?), and Gaby Cespedes has made it known that no sale had been concluded yet.
Good afternoon,
They do nice takeaway pizzas at La Genese
goldi
Good afternoon,
They do nice takeaway pizzas at La Genese
That is quite normal for an upscale French naturist centre - even quite small ones have build-your-own evenings.
JOhn
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionaries
Last Friday it was made official that La Sablière has been sold, presumably for something not much below the asking price (12.5 million euros). It has been bought by CapFun, a firm that runs numerous high class campsites in France - none of them naturist, which means that French naturism has probably just lost one of its jewels.
Last Friday it was made official that La Sablière has been sold, presumably for something not much below the asking price (12.5 million euros). It has been bought by CapFun, a firm that runs numerous high class campsites in France - none of them naturist, which means that French naturism has probably just lost one of its jewels.
Given the continued existence of La Genese and the two lesser naturist sites at this location, I wonder how a textile site would work here.
JOhn
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionaries