Camping naturiste Le pas de Ceilhes

Le Pas de Ceilhes is a naturist club campsite in the town of Fondamente, in the Aveyron, at the end of a lane that winds down from the hamlet of Tournadous. The site covers 156 hectares of forest, meadows and valleys, crossed by the Vérenne stream.

The site has been run since 1965 by the Les Grifouls association, affiliated with the Fédération Française de Naturisme. Access is reserved for members of organisations affiliated with the international naturist federation, on presentation of a valid annual stamp, though it is also possible to join the association directly on site on arrival. Naturism here is practised as a family: children enjoy a paddling pool, a room of their own and regional activities accessible from age 3.

The 87 pitches, each around 100m², are spread across six mown meadows: Grand Pré, Pré de Violettes, Pré des Marcassins, Pré de Montcourtet, Pré de la Luzerne and Pré de la Source. A dirt track connects them, with a speed limit of 5km/h. The site is not connected to mains electricity, but 12-volt power packs can be rented. Three simple sanitary blocks, partly accessible to people with reduced mobility, are maintained by campers themselves.

The campsite is open from 1 May to 15 September. Bookings are made by email, and reception is available in French and Dutch.

Le Pas de Ceilhes offers no catering on site: only gas and a few souvenirs are sold at reception, and there is neither a snack bar nor a bar. Shopping is done in Fondamente, 10 kilometres away, or in the shops of Cornus and Ceilhes-et-Rocozels. An organic vegetable garden is available to campers, who can pick their own fruit and vegetables, weighed and paid for at reception.

For wellness, a sauna operates on Wednesdays and Sundays in season, for a small contribution, before a dip in the plunge pool fed by the nearby stream. The campsite’s unsupervised pool is fed with fresh spring water; it is reserved exclusively for nude bathing, with no swimwear. A shaded paddling pool lets the youngest visitors play with water toys and a spring-water hose.

Wi-Fi, limited to reception and the farmhouse’s large hall, runs on a satellite connection: it allows emails and brief video calls, but not streaming or online gaming. The 3G/4G mobile network gets poor reception down in the valley; you sometimes need to climb up to the plateau to make a call. Three sanitary blocks, with solar or gas showers and a hand-washing system, complete the site’s facilities.

On site, campers gather around the pétanque court at Grand Pré, the table tennis and table football in the farmhouse’s large hall, where musical evenings, fireside gatherings and board games punctuate the high season. Twice a week, a communal barbecue is organised at the Presbytère, with a wood-fired pizza oven available on request; fires are tolerated there, whereas they are banned elsewhere on the estate due to fire risk. Every 14 July is celebrated with a party, and the traditional Potje-potje brings campers together around dishes each has prepared.

For children, the Salle des Jeunes offers table football and, on some evenings, a disco reserved for them. Nearby, the Antipodes treetop adventure park, near Millau, welcomes children from age 3, with more challenging courses and a zip line over the Tarn from age 12; the same operator also offers via ferrata, canyoning, canoeing and paragliding.

Hikes set off directly from the site, on foot or by mountain bike, and fossil hunting on the neighbouring Guilhaumard plateau is a popular activity after rain. The markets of Millau, Saint-Affrique and Lodève, all less than 50 kilometres away, are worth the trip, as is the Millau viaduct or the Micropolis insect park in Saint-Léons.