Going Topless

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We have spent a week in Nice, in the nicest apartment we have stayed all throughout Europe. It's not the largest, but the kitchen is stocked with cooking supplies and it is definitely the cleanest and most decorated, which are all things I love.

We cooked mussels tonight, and they were delicious. As we head into Italy tomorrow, it is natural that I feel the gradual approach of the end of our Europe Adventure. We have only 2 countries to go, and only 25% of our trip. I am going to miss speaking French. My vocabulary has grown and developed with more conversations and listening experiences. We have mastered the French train system and lived through the train strike. I have had my fair share of pain au chocolat

One thing I am going to miss about France and the majority of southern Europe is how open everyone and everything is. While the streets may be narrow, minds are not. In Spain, I saw for the very first time in my life women tanning topless at a public beach. I even saw a man walking to his car wearing nothing but a sun hat and a t-shirt. It wasn't classified as a nude beach, but no one cared. I imagine the logic involves the desire for no tan lines. At that point, I decided: I will join in before I go back to Canada. How can you not?

Since Spain, Nice has been our only real beach experience. The main beach in Nice is rocky, and is just off a main pedestrian walkway. There are a lot of people around, and consequenlty there weren't a lot of naked people for that reason. Still, there were a variety of women at the beach who rocked the topless - usually older women. There was a woman who sat behind us, leaning against the brick wall, and she was awesome. She looked about 60, was in very good shape, was very brown, and had saggy boobs. But she didn't care. She owned the beach. She had the confidence I wish I could have.

In search of a more sandy and less crowded beach, we took the bus in the direction of Monaco to Cap d'Ail. One stop ahead of where we thought we should get off, the young couple in front of us stepped off, and they definitely looked like they were going to the beach. So, we followed. We walked down some steps, and then down some roads, and then down a pedestrian path, and arrived at the first official (unofficial) nude beach I have ever been to in my life.

There might have been 30 people at the beach. It's unmarked and it should stay that way. Everyone had their own private collection of rocks. And everyone was NAKED. And I mean full-on naked. I was a bit too shy to join to full-on-naked party, but let's just say that I worked on removing the bra-strap tan lines.

I began to wonder about how prude we are in North America... I mean, really. We are easily offended. We look down on things that bring us pleasure and happiness, and approve of what requires sacrifice. We are shamed for being overweight and underweight; for smoking, drinking, sleeping in too late, and for thinking about ourselves a little bit too much. Here, it doesn't seem to matter. No one counts the number of glasses of wine you have, or how many pain au chocolats you have had... (um, too many to count). There is no shame in going topless, or nude, at a beach. No shame in anything.

So we have two topics: the legal aspects of drinking, nudity, etc., and how we react to such things (or, how and why we judge other people). In North America, we seem to look down on those things that one might be free to partake in in Europe. We make it more difficult to indulge. For example, you can buy wine at the grocery store in Europe, instead of having to go to a separate, specialized store. (There's also the fact that liquor, particularly wine, seems to be regarded as something to enhance a meal, so there is a great advantage to having it in the same store that you buy your meat from).

I don't want this discussion to be about the legal. But I think we all need to think twice about what we think is bad, and why we think that way. We could probably take a page from the open-minded Europeans regarding how one chooses to live one's life, and breath in some fresh air. In general, we need to educate ourselves - to have opinions of our own that are not necessarily guided by laws and how we were raised. We need to practice suspending judgment, and not give the smoker a dirty look when they are standing a little too close to the mall entrance. And don't knock nude beaches until you've tried them.

Sarah.

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