The gendarmes picking their gear out of a rubber dingy
as the now surrounded sun lovers are running into the sea. 
The gendarmes marching the captured nudist off in triumph.
The arrested covering themselves as best they can.
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the sun in the nude is both indecent and immoral, even so it is good to know that some still do. It gives the rest of us a chance to display our chocks and to feel offended. Round Europe there have been for ages beaches famous for their nudity. Some official secluded nudist beaches and some just taken over by clothless. Different countries have different rules on the subject of decency on the beaches, but to day we’re talking about France. In France there are close to two hundred different societies and groups that gather to enjoy the sun and the sea in the nude. The authorities have generously given them permission to do so on about 75 beaches. Here they can play with balls, dance ring dances and all the rest one can find pictures of in the different magazines promoting the health bringing activities of nudism.But on the large beach, Pampelonne, near St Tropez, the city famous for the tiniest bikinis and prettiest girls in the world nude bathing is prohibited. Still a few brave ones do the ball and ring dance routine bare assed and worse, they have printed brochures telling the rest of Europe that just this beach is perfect for just this. All this nudity was finally too much for the local protectors of law and decency. The magistrate decided to take action and show once and for all that the limit had been reached. But how? What do a gendarme do with a nude tourist that on top of all speak a language the gendarme do not understand. And little could be done with all the indecent nudity if a gendarme or two should show, the happy nudists covered up as soon as a uniform was announced. Helicopters and binoculars was in use to the great pleasure of the law but to little gain for the local decency. A large surprising operation was what was needed, to round up all the nudity, to put it like that. Operation Paradise was set into action. A police officer had come up with a devious plan. Gendarmes should disquise them selves as nudists, and should done their caps and shields at a previously agreed signal and start the arrests. |
A good plan, but the law demanded that both cap and bandoleer should be worn by the arresting gemdarme. Exeptions could be made, but only when dealing with hardcore criminals. The nudist were not regarded as such. Besides, the gendarmes dignity was at stake here. A gendarme in cap and bandoleer and nothing else would look rather ridiculous in most peoples eyes, particularly in the nudists. Finally, the operation was set into motion. Two groups of police officers were engaged. One group of fully dressed gendarmes was to crawl as close to the beach as possible, while another group was mingling with the clothless wearing bathing trunks. As the uniformed group stormed onto the beach, the ones in trunks should grab their caps and bandoleers from their bags, don them and the arrests could start. Forty gendarmes from the local police force participated. The nudists were a lot faster than the gendarmes. Most of them got clothes on before the the policemen in trunks got their caps and bandoleers on. Of about 500 nudists, only about 25 were still naked when the two groups of gendarmes was ready to start the arrests. The images in this article are from the movie making fun of the whole episode, "Le Gendarmes de St Tropez", made by the French director Jean Girault where a lot of happy extras gladly played nudists and lightly dressed gendarmes.
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