This is a very strong request from naturime enthusiasts: to make the Calanque des Pierres-tombées an area reserved for this practice. A group recently stepped up, demanding that the Paris municipality issue a municipal decree to this effect.
At the origin of this collective? Anne-Marie Catella, a follower of naturism, who frequents the Calanque des Pierres-tombées “since 1978”. “It has always been a place frequented by naturists”, confides to our colleagues from La Provence the one who managed to unite a hundred people around her project.
More and more frequented creeks
According to her, authorizing this practice would above all make it possible to officially legalize the process, which can sometimes be disturbing. “In the 1970s, nudity was a way to free ourselves and be closer to nature,” she explained to the Marseille newspaper, stressing that today girls had “a lot of trouble to undress”, in “a fairly macho city” like Marseille.
Because the Calanque des Pierres-tombées is increasingly frequented by onlookers and tourists who come to discover the Calanques National Park. “When onlookers see that there is no more room in the Calanque de Sugiton, they settle in Pierres-tombées. We find ourselves doing the police, having to justify ourselves, managing the voyeurs, ”laments Anne-Marie Catella.
According to the National Park, the Calanque de Sugiton and its turquoise waters, formed by two small pebble beaches, is indeed very popular in summer, when its attendance can reach 1,500 people per day. Result: a “visiting permit” will be tried out to access this small Mediterranean cove that is overcrowded and threatened with erosion.
This is even more likely to create a carryover to the Calanque des Pierres-tombées, located next door. Since the deconfinement in the spring of 2020, the Calanques National Park has also been fighting against overcrowding: prohibition of vessels without authorization, “demarketing” by publishing photos of crowded beaches to discourage visitors, or even prohibition of access by car.
As for the file, it arrived on the desk of the Marseille deputy in charge of the sea, Hervé Menchon. To answer it in good knowledge of the file, the elected ecologist even received a delegation of practitioners last week. In the meantime, naturism remains tolerated and is moreover “registered in the Park’s charter, as a significant cultural element”, we recall at the National Park.