A visit to the naturist Village d'Origan

Naked hiking and wild skinny dipping

We love naked hiking, but a problem that we keep facing is that our adventures are often limited to the borders of the naturist campsite. True, many of these campsites can be several tens of hectares large and often have plenty of space for exploring. Maybe it’s just the thought of being limited by the borders of a domain that feels a bit suffocating. The advantage, on the other hand, is that during hikes on a naturist domain, our right to be nude is guaranteed. That nobody can pass by and tell us to put some pants on. This shouldn’t be underestimated. One day, we went on a naked hike in the outskirts of Paris with a local naturist group, all on public trails and paths. This sounded like a great opportunity at first, but on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the hike often turned into a weird dance of jumping in and out clothes whenever we turned a corner and almost ran into an unexpecting family on their Sunday walk.

We concluded that we had two options: awkward and uncomfortable nude hikes on public grounds or restricted hikes on naturist domains. But that was before we had visited naturist campsite Origan Village. The location of the campsite in itself could hardly be more impressive. The oasis of greenery with high peaks in the backdrop already gives you the kind of feeling that you’re in the wild outdoors instead of on a private domain. We had heard rumors about the excellent hiking opportunities at Origan and one sunny afternoon we put on our shoes, filled our water bottles, and went out exploring.

Our map showed two trails which both led to the banks of the Var river, interestingly indicated as the “long easy path” and the “short but harder path”. With a bright sun on our backs and temperatures high in the thirties, we opted for the easy longer path. Within minutes, the trail through the forest would bring us to a viewing point which, in influencer terminology, could best be described as a “Top Instagrammable Location”. A picture-perfect setting where you can pose naked in front of an excellent landscape of the Provence countryside with the Var river far down below.

The trail took us further down, all the way to the promised river banks. A rocky landscape with the wide river streaming in the middle. Most of all, its cold mountain waters proved to be a welcome refreshment and excellent for a skinny dip. As the river is barely half a meter deep, even the strong current didn’t really pose much trouble. We decided to explore the short but harder path on our return to the campsite and we’re happy that we did. It’s more challenging and requires body movements that are definitely best performed without clothes, but it has much more of an adventure-feel.

Did our hike take us outside the boundaries of Origan Village? We honestly don’t know. We definitely didn’t feel restricted by landmarks though and given the approval of the staff, we never doubted whether we should put on pants or not. The excellent mix.