Paris set to get its very first nudist park - a dedicated spot for roaming free of clothes

After city councillors voted in favour of setting aside a designated space for the two million odd nudists in Paris, the city gears up to set up its first official nudist park.

While public nudity is a punishable office carrying a penalty of €15,000 or upto a year's imprisonment, those who subscribe to naturism have been seeking a safe haven where they can shed their clothes and move around freely without hindrance, or causing public outrage.

The wooden areas of the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes which are located on the outskirts of the city are being considered as possible options for the proposed nudist park, and is expected to be up and running by the coming summer.

Paris already has a swimming pool on the 12th arrondissement that makes room for nudity three evenings a week. But the large population of naturists have been seeking to dissociate the practice of nudism with sexual exhibitionism, and thus be provided with larger spaces where they can roam free of clothes.

It was the Green Party of Paris that first proposed the idea for a nudist park. According to an AFP report, Deputy Mayor Bruno Julliard however said the new dedicated space for naturists would have to be "near a lake, in a regulated setting so that there is no threat to public order".

"For them, Paris is the world's premier tourist destination and there's no public place for them to go," Councilman David Belliard was quoted to have said in a Star report. "We want to try out a recreational area where nudists can freely strip off," he said.