Baie Rouge ("Red Bay") is a north-facing beach located west of Marigot on the French side of St. Martin. This beach is just a few kilometers away from Cupecoy Beach (which is across the border on the Dutch side of the island). The beach is about 1.4-kilometers long, and the parking lot is located at the extreme east end of the beach. Next to the parking lot, there are two beach cafés that are next to one another. (Such an establishment is known locally as a "lolo," which is an acronym for "locally owned and locally operated." A lolo typically serves cheap food in a beach-shack type of environment.) There is also a cluster of beach chairs and umbrellas that are rentable. Just about all visitors to Baie Rouge stay in this area, while the rest of the beach is mostly empty.

The area immediately around the lolos is essential textile, which in French culture means that swimsuit bottoms are worm. (Bare breasts are acceptable.) Full nudity is common starting at the southern edge of the cluster of beach chairs (to the left when facing the water). Exact nudity patterns vary from days to day. Sometime nudists occupy the southernmost handful of beach chairs, next to textile neighbors. Sometimes nudists drag the chairs farther down the beach for a little more separation from textiles. Sometimes there is a self-imposed buffer zone of 50 meters or so between nudists and the nearest textiles. Whatever the case, nudists and textiles are in fairly close proximity, and nudists are always a fairly small minority of the overall crowd.

Walking south past the end of the beach chairs, you will be along part of the beach where there is a tree-covered hillside behind the beach, with a few houses at the top of the hill. Within just a few minutes, the land behind the beach flattens out. From that point, there are vacations houses that directly abut the beach. There are some intervals between houses where nudity may take place, but nudity may not be a good idea directly in front of the vacation houses. (The area shaded lightly in red shows the fairly short span of the beach between the beach chairs and the start of the beachfront houses, and this stretch of less than 200 meters is where most nudity occurs.)

VISUAL RESOURCES

GPS: 18.0687N, 63.1241W

country  St. Martin (France)

classification  1 (freely nude)

There are 4 placemarks related to this site.