The collection of hotel placemarks (for apartments, hotels and other rentals), along with the tent placemark (for the campground), roughly defines the extent of the naturist quarter.

It is difficult to know how to begin to describe Cap d'Agde (pronounced "kap dahg"), since calling it a "naturist resort" doesn't even begin to paint a picture of this place. First of all, the location: the towns Agde and Cap d'Agde are in the western part of Hérault, about 65 kilometers southwest of Montpellier and 25 kilometers east of Béziers. Agde is a regular town, while Cap d'Agde is a large resort town on the coast. Many people mistakenly think that all of Cap d'Agde is for nudists, but in fact in most areas of Cap d'Agde clothing is necessary. The 250-acre naturist quarter is just one zone of Cap d'Agde, located on the far eastern end of the resort complex. (It may be useful to think of the naturist quarter as a "suburb" of Cap d'Agde town.) For convenience, we'll use the term "Cap d'Agde" to refer specifically to the naturist section.

The naturist quarter functions as a small self-contained city, with grocery stores, shops, banks, bars, hotels, condominiums, campgrounds, swimming pools and a long stretch of beach. The naturist quarter is packed with upwards of 40,000 visitors daily during the peak summer season. Although billed primarily as a family-oriented naturist resort town, Cap d'Agde in fact draws a diverse range of people, including families, couples, singles, straight, gay, bi—all types of people from puritans to hedonists. Although visitors are primarily from European countries, Cap d'Agde has been growing in popularity with North American nudists. Nudity is permitted everywhere, so it is in fact possible to do grocery shopping in the nude here. Virtually everyone is naked on the beach, where signs announce "Nudité Obligatoire," but otherwise about half the crowd is naked in other venues of the naturist quarter. At nighttime, the majority of visitors tend to wear clothes in the restaurants and clubs. Even if you do not stay at one of the accommodations, you can pay a fee to enter the naturist quarter for the day.

Cap d'Agde is a far cry from any kind of naturist resort anywhere else in the world. The French are much more comfortable with sexuality than are Americans, and many people do visit Cap d'Agde for the sexual opportunities that it affords. There are clubs, fetish shops and the like that cater to adult pleasures. Those who "swing" and those who don't seem to segregate and coexist peacefully.

Ultimately, whether of not to visit Cap d'Agde should perhaps be determined by how you feel about huge crowds. If your idea of the ideal nude venue is a quiet, scenic, remote, wild beach—this is not it. If nudity en masse factored exponentially is your thing, you can't do any better than Cap d'Agde.

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