Paris is set to have an official nudist park after officials voted in favour of the plans on Monday night.
This could see Paris could set up a park for nudists as early as next summer, in a possible first for a capital city, in a country that is the world’s top destination for clothes-free leisure lovers.
Two main wooded areas on the outskirts of the city, the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, are being considered as possible options.
Naturism is popular among some Parisians but public nudity is forbidden unless taking place in specified areas, and can carry a penalty of €15,000 (£13,050) or up to a year in prison.
Paris lawmakers voted late on Monday to approve a proposal by ecologists to set up zone for nudists, possibly in one of two major wooded areas on the edge of the city.
Naturism “is developing and Paris so far has nowhere” to practise it, said David Belliard, co-chair of the ecologist group in the city council.
He noted that 2 million French people practise naturism, which is already possible in several European cities including Barcelona, Berlin and Munich.
With more than 100 clothes-free beaches and numerous holiday camps, France is the world’s No 1 destination for naturists, said Bruno Julliard, deputy to Paris’s socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo.
City officials in Paris are planning on changing this by finding a park or garden for naturists to be able to visit.
“We need to find the right place and we don’t want to upset anyone or ruffle feathers,” the Deputy Mayor for Paris, Bruno Julliard, told RMC Radio.
“It’ll probably be a park or a garden,” he said, adding: “Other European capitals have done so, very recently Berlin,” Reuters reported.
Paris currently has a swimming pool on the 12th arrondissement that allows nudity three evenings a week, but many naturists have been asking for larger spaces in which to roam free of clothes.
Speaking after councillors approved the proposal Monday evening, David Belliard, the co-chair of the ecologist group in the city council, said that naturism was on the rise and “Paris so far has nowhere” for would-be nudists to practise it, according to AFP.