‘A little decorum, please!': Shirtless tourists face hefty fine in French holiday hotspot
Yannick Moreau, the mayor of Les Sables d'Olonne, called for 'a little decorum, please!' in a Facebook post on 22 July.
Moreau wrote: 'This is indecent behaviour that has a nasty tendency to escalate summer after summer.
'So it's time to make it clear: it is forbidden to walk around shirtless or in a swimsuit in Les Sables-d'Olonne.'
Topless tourists face fines up to €150 (£130) if they are caught without clothes away from the beach.
A poster promoting the ban says that being shirtless in Les Sables-d'Olonne – a place with '200 years of elegance' – is 'forbidden'.
It also tells tourists 'not to end up in your underwear in our alleys'.
According to Moreau, the ban is a mark of 'respect' for the residents of Les Sables-d'Olonne.
He added that the new rule is one of 'public hygiene in our markets, our shops, and our alleyways'.
The mayor has instructed municipal police officers in the area to enforce the rule.
Les Sables-d'Olonne, a seaside resort on the French Atlantic coast, is known for its surfing, sailing and long stretch of beach.
Moreau said: 'To show off your pecs and your best swimsuit in Les Sables-d'Olonne, 11 km of beaches are at your disposal.
'Enjoy them, while respecting the rules and traditions of our seaside resort.'
It's not the only tourist town encouraging travellers to cover up.
In February, Albufeira in Portugal proposed huge fines for holidaymakers if they walk through the city in only their swimwear.
The party city in the southern Algarve region, a popular beach destination amongst British tourists, could start dishing out fines up to €1,500 (£1,250) for those who wander the city's streets in only a bikini or swimming trunks.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Lost library book was found in Paris and returned to Reading
A book which was borrowed from a library in the UK was found abandoned on the Paris Metro before being diligently returned by a travel guide, "Top 10 Paris," was borrowed from Battle Library on Oxford Road in Reading earlier in the eagle-eyed Parisienne found it on Metro Line 1 in the French capital a few weeks later and messaged the library to find out how to send it staff have now contacted the original borrower to reassure them the book has been returned. Reading Borough Council's lead councillor for leisure and culture, Adele Barnett-Ward, said: "It's wonderful to see how far our library books can travel, although we do prefer they come back home eventually." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
The North Coast 500 sold a Scottish dream to the world. A decade on, locals are counting the cost
There was a flutter of excitement in the car park. I had pulled in to admire the curving Kylesku Bridge, but the smartphones were pointing in the other direction. I squinted and saw a red deer on top of a little mound by the road, silhouetted against the lightbox-white sky. It's a funny thing. There are hundreds of thousands of red deer in the Highlands, so many that they have to be culled. The back-lighting was poor and this wasn't even a stag. Then again, the way tourists behave doesn't always follow conventional logic. The deep valleys and high peaks of Scotland have been here for hundreds of millions of years. But only in the last decade, in this narrow lay-by of history, have the tourist hordes thought to visit. Ten years ago, the North Highland Initiative launched the North Coast 500, a scheme to boost footfall in Scotland's remote northern regions. I visited shortly after its launch in 2015 and there was a sense of cautious optimism around the project, although many were sceptical about just how busy things could feasibly get somewhere as remote as this, on the same latitude as Alaska. But there was something about the branding of the 'North Coast 500' that captured imaginations. The loop drew comparisons with Route 66; Top Gear came to visit. Soon, our social media feeds were populated with moody Highland cattle 'Passing Place' signs and – yes – pensive roadside deer. By the second season, there were reports of traffic build-ups on single-track lanes, visitors sleeping in cars, and litter (or worse) piled up by the roadside. This year, Fodor's listed the NC500 in its 2025 'No List' of places to avoid, due to its 'untenable popularity'. Ten years after the launch of the North Coast 500, I revisited to see if the Far North was thriving or buckling under the weight of its new-found fame. 'A South Coast 500 might be a good idea' Driving the North Coast 500 anti-clockwise is like watching a movie in reverse, in that the cinematic conclusion, the mountainscapes and golden beaches of Wester Ross and Sutherland, comes straight away. The snaking Bealach na Bà (or Applecross Pass), reminiscent of the great French Alpine passes, is often held up as one of the highlights of the road trip. Although on my visit, something was different. The big road sign warning of the treacherous road ahead, once unreadable due to the thousand touring stickers that had been slapped on it, had been elevated beyond reach. 'You can't say it's not good for business,' said Judith Fish, landlord of the Applecross Inn at the finishing line of the pass, when I asked her about the North Coast 500. 'But I've been here for 37 years, and worked very hard in a magical location,' she added, gesturing across the glassy bay, which is about as scenic as pub gardens get. 'We were already made, which is why I'm not paying the fee to be part of the North Coast 500. I've done the hard work, I'm not paying,' Fish insisted. The annual fee for a business to be listed on the North Coast 500's products ranges from £110 to £970, depending on the size of the business. Fish laments that, since 2015, there has been a rise of reckless rally drivers, breakdowns on the pass (a crucial road for locals to reach hospitals) and international guests arriving at her pub, without a booking, at all hours of the day looking for food or shelter. Some locals were so perturbed that they suggested getting Applecross removed from the route entirely. So what's the answer? It's almost as if the question is so broad, the issues so deep-rooted, that she could only respond to such a question with a joke. 'The South Coast 500 might be a good idea,' she said. 'Get them all down to Devon and Cornwall.' A land of island mountains North of Applecross is a landscape of peculiar inselbergs, 'island mountains', sandstone monoliths that appear to have dropped from the sky. They have names that evoke quests: Suilven, Stac Pollaidh (Stack Polly), Cùl Mòr. It is a land of deep lochs, long views and rich folklore. One man, Griogair MacAllein, has made a living out of regaling the mythology of the region. We met on a drizzly day in a tract of woodland on the outskirts of Lochinver. Despite the wet, he was dressed for the part in a kilt, woolly jumper and leather belt as he told tales of the mermaids and spirits of the Highlands with a degree of sincerity that felt more factual than folkloric. While he wrapped a little red ribbon around a tree trunk (used to ward off evil spirits) I broke the spell by asking about how Scotland's north is coping with its new-found fame. 'It's the few who spoil it for the many,' he said. 'The NC500 is the attraction, and it certainly serves a purpose. If people respected it, it would be better. But some people use it as a race track or leave their waste in the ditches on the side of the road. There's no excuse for that.' I was driving the North Coast 500 in late spring, in order to avoid the tourists (and, more importantly, the midges). So while I didn't see any of the issues at their worst, there were hints of the challenges the region faces. A rally of Mini Coopers zoomed past me in a fairly hazardous fashion on one stretch of road. I did see some barbecue-scorched patches of grass near beaches, and also a quite dramatic wildfire. But I sat in zero traffic jams and saw no litter on the roadsides. Now, in peak season, the locals paint a different picture. Facebook groups including 'NC500, the dirty truth' and 'NC500 the land weeps' show heaps of litter, campervans parked illegally by the roadside and long traffic jams on single-track roads. It makes you wonder if, having put the region on the map, the people behind the North Coast 500 are doing anything to solve these problems? 'It's a serious game we're involved in' 'The NC500 Facebook group attracted 30,000 followers within a few weeks,' says David Richardson, Development and Engagement Manager at North Coast 500, reflecting on the early days of the project. This was the first indication that they were onto something big. When it first launched, the NC500 was nothing more than a website and some flyers distributed at Inverness's Classic Vehicle Show. And, strictly speaking, it was a re-branding of an existing road trip called the 'North and West Highlands Tourist Route'. No new tarmac was laid. No potholes filled. Yet within three years, visitor attraction numbers were up 30 per cent. B&Bs were selling out a year in advance. A regional tourism economy at risk of stagnation was, suddenly, thriving. The fact that there have since been multiple copy-cat initiatives is testimony to the NC500's impact. Since 2015, we have seen the launch of the the Heart 200 (Central Scotland), the Kintyre 66 (Argyll), South West Coast 300 (south-west Scotland), the North East 250 (around the Moray Firth coast), the Yorkshire 600, the South West 660 (Somerset and Dorset) and The Lakes 100. 'We've done no promotion since 2020. It's all about advice, help and managing expectations and responsible behaviour,' Richardson said. As of this year, there are 18 rangers on patrol in the region, and there are plans to launch an app to monitor the built-up areas along the route using live data. These days, on the NC500 website, the first thing you see is a 'Visitor Pledge' encouraging tourists to respect the environment and support local communities. It is a noble idea, although the pledge has only amassed 4,000-or-so signatures since it soft-launched last autumn. There were 8.4m visitors to the Scottish Highlands in 2023. One quibble I heard on the road was that the NC500 – initially funded by the charitable and King Charles III-backed North Highland Initiative – is now owned by the Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, Scotland's largest private landowner. Some people query whether one man, and his company, should be able to wield such influence over such a large area. 'It's a very serious game we're involved in. It's not about people profiteering at residents' expense. Nobody who has invested money in the North Coast 500 has made a penny out of it. We're a tiny organisation and we've made a loss every year. We're doing it because it matters,' says Richardson. Venturing into the forgotten East As I progressed around the circuit, the roadsides decorated with the most spectacular yellow gorse, I made detours to the golden beach of Sandwood Bay, explored the cavernous wonder of Smoo Cave, and scrambled up to the tumbling ruins of Ardvreck Castle, watching the gigabytes of available space in my phone rapidly reduce. But I knew that soon, somewhere around the village of Tongue, my camera roll would begin to dry up. There's another side to the North Coast 500. In the eastern half of the loop, the terrain is flatter. A large part of the north coast is fringed by the world's largest blanket bog, the Forsinard Flows. There are more grandiose castles like Dunrobin and Mey, and high-calibre distilleries like Glenmorangie and Clynelish (whose futuristic visitor experience must be seen to be believed), but this half of the route also passes through some of the most deprived towns in Britain. In Thurso, the local economy has suffered since the run-down of the Dounreay nuclear power plant in the 1990s. A stroll along the high street suggests that little of the £20m (or so) that the NC500 generates annually for the local economy has trickled into this town. Most of the tourists who do stop in Thurso are either surfers catching a wave, or people killing time before catching a ferry to Orkney. In Wick, a once-thriving herring port, the high street is despondent with its shuttered shops and bookmakers. The distribution of the NC500's economic benefits are, clearly, inevitably, limited. Although it's not true that these towns are seeing zero gain from the initiative. 'We are seeing people on their third visit, which is wonderful. I had a man called Silvester and his family in twice, and they said they won't see us for quite a few years because next time they're going to Durness to explore the area there,' said Murray Lamont, owner of Mackays Hotel in Wick. As he spoke, a tourist emerged outside the door and posed for a photograph. Mackays Hotel is located on the shortest road in the world, called Ebenezer Place, measuring just 2.06m (6ft 9ins) in length. Indeed, Mackays has a page on its website advertising this very fact. 'There was somebody who has a wee shop on the North Coast 500. He was in here one night, complaining about people coming into his shop asking for lattes,' said Lamont. 'He sells newspapers and tins of soup. So I said, 'Well, maybe you should consider selling lattes.' But he wasn't interested. He bought his business as a lifestyle, selling morning newspapers and not doing much for the rest of the day. 'The people who are critical of the NC500 speak out louder than the people who support it. And yes, the infrastructure could certainly do with some investment. But overall it has been so good for the area,' he adds. On the final stretch towards Inverness, thick granite clouds quickly descended – not for the first time, during my week in Scotland's Far North – and a rainbow arched over the road. It was the kind of scene that would look perfect on a North Coast 500 poster, I thought. A moment of something quite brilliant emerging from something quite bleak. And, if Griogair MacAllein had taught me anything, there would be pots of gold out there, somewhere, ready for the taking. Where to stay Greg Dickinson (writer) and Hana Kelly (videographer) stayed as guests of the Highland Coast Hotels, which has comfortable and convenient outposts in Kylesku (including Kylesku Hotel and Newton Lodge), Plockton, Inverness, Dornoch, Brora and Tongue. Doubles in high-season start from £215 per room per night. In autumn, rooms start from £149 and winter doubles start from £129. The Telegraph has expert reviews of all of the best hotels in the Scottish Highlands. When to visit Shoulder season is the best time to tackle the North Coast 500. Roads will be much quieter, and you have every chance of landing upon a lucky streak of sunshine in April (avoiding the Easter holidays, ideally) and September. How to do it Take your time and dare to veer off the official route. Detours to Orkney, Plockton, the Black Isle, Strathpeffer, Achiltibuie and the Summer Isles will be hugely rewarding. The more creative tourers are with their itineraries, the greater the economic distribution of the NC500, and the more evenly spread the tourist footfall.
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Europe's hellfire: France's killer wildfire the size of PARIS continues to rage after tourists in Spain are evacuated and country reports more than 1,000 have died from the heat
France 's deadly wildfire is continuing to tear through the country and cause 'hellish' devastation while tourists are being evacuated in Spain as the country announces one of its highest monthly tallies of heat deaths. The rapidly-growing wildfire, currently burning through an area larger than Paris, in southern France that broke out on Tuesday burned through some 16,000 hectares and remains 'very active' as of Wednesday, according to officials. One woman died in her home and least 13 others were injured, including 11 firefighters, while at least three people were reported missing as about 2,100 firefighters and several water bomber aircraft battled the blaze that broke out in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region, a rural, wooded area that is home to several wineries. 'It's a scene of sadness and desolation,' said Jacques Piraux, mayor of the village of Jonquières, where all residents have been evacuated. 'It looks like a lunar landscape, everything is burned. More than half or three-quarters of the village has burned down.' It is believed to be the nation's worst wildfire since 1949. Meanwhile, 1,500 tourists and locals have been evacuated in Spain as a dramatic forest fire near a beach resort caused chaos in Tarifa, often branded a 'surfer's paradise' due to its extremely wide beaches and tall waves. Regional authorities in Spain said late on Wednesday that a wildfire raging near Tarifa that prompted evacuations had been 'stabilised'. The blaze in France - the biggest the country has seen all summer out of 9,000 fires - has damaged 25 homes in the Aude department, where 1,500 firefighters have been battling to extinguish it. A 65-year-old woman died in her home while nine others were injured, including seven firefighters were hurt as they fought the flames. A De Havilland Dash firefighting aircraft drops fire retardant on a forest fire burning in Saint Laurent de la Cabrerisse, Aude department, France, 6 August 2025 'The resident absolutely wanted to stay in her house and unfortunately the fire quickly arrived and engulfed her house,' said the mayor of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, Xavier de Volontat, about the victim. 'People are losing everything,' said Aude Damesin, who lives in the town of Fabrezan. 'I find it tragic to see so many fires since the beginning of the summer.' 'The fire is still spreading and is far from being contained or under control,' said Remi Recio, an official in the southern city of Narbonne. The Aude department in particular has seen an increase in areas burnt in recent years, aggravated by low rainfall and the removal of vineyards, which used to help brake the advance of fires. 'The fire is advancing in an area where all the conditions are ripe for it to progress. We are monitoring the edges and the back of the fire to prevent flare-ups,' said Lucie Roesch, secretary general of the Aude prefecture. Planes have been dropping water on the flames but Roesch warned 'this fire will keep us busy for several days. It's a long-term operation'. In Spain, hundreds of people were said to have bunkered down in a shelter in Algeciras after being evacuated from hotels and homes near the fire in Tarifa, as beach bars and campsites were abandoned in the chaos. Firefighters were still working to extinguish the fire on Wednesday, having battled through the night to control the blaze that required a team of up to 17 aircraft. The flames began spreading in the hills of Torre de la Peña, behind the hugely popular resort of Tarifa. According to the Andalucia firefighter service INFOCA, there are gusts of 20-25km/hr that are favouring the fire's spread. The fire was snaking very close to the N-340 highway and the Estrecho Natural Park - the former of which has been partially closed between Las Piñas and Pedro Valiente. Tarifa Mayor Antonio Santos has described the situation as unprecedented. 'This is the fastest-spreading fire I've ever seen,' he said on national channel La Sexta. Hundreds of the people evacuated from hotels and homes by the fire were said to have spent the night in a hostel in Algeciras, while droves found shelter in a La Marina sports centre in Tarifa as 5,000 fled the area in cars. Fire stations from elsewhere in the province including Chiclana, Benalup and Los Barrios sent troops to assist the effort against the blaze in Tarifa, as attempts are being concentrated on controlling the fire on the north and east flanks. The heatwave is expected to last until next Sunday, according to Spain's State Meteorological Agency (Aemet). Tourists sit on the beach as the smoke from wildfires raging in the Aude department is seen from the Mediterranean coast in Banyuls-sur-Mer, southwestern France, on August 5 All bars, restaurants or hotels have been evacuated between La Peña and Casas de Porros, reports local newspaper Europa Sur, including beach bars and 'chiringuitos' due to the large amounts of ash being carried down to the shore. According to the local police, the fire started in a motorhome at the Torre la Peña campsite, which also had to be evacuated. The flames then blew westward, away from the campsite, and spread rapidly through a hilly and grassland area where homes and tourist establishments are scattered - including the Wawa Hotel, which is reported to have been affected by the fire. Some 17 aircraft have been roped in to tackle the inferno, which took hold in Cadiz in Andalusia on Tuesday afternoon. The current firefighting operation involves five helicopters, two water-carrying planes and a coordination plane, five forest fire ground crews and more. In the wake of the French fire, French President Emmanuel Macron called on people to exercise the 'utmost caution', saying on X: 'All of the Nation's resources are mobilised.' Camping grounds and one village were partially evacuated, and several local roads have been closed. The fires there spread through a stretch of land roughly equivalent to the size of the French capital between Carcassonne and Narbonne. Four Canadairs, two Dashes and a water bomber helicopter resumed service around 7 am on Wednesday morning to fight the flames, as 100 police officers supported the effort. It comes as the country sees one of its worst months for heat-related deaths, with 1,060 people having died due to high temperatures in July, a 57 per cent increase from figures last year. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires. The two blazes come just days after fires erupted in Portugal, Greece, and Spain, while tornadoes struck tourist hotspots in parts of Spain and Switzerland. Thousands of firefighters battled a dozen wildfires raging in northern Portugal and central Spain into Wednesday, in the largest wave of blazes in the Iberian Peninsula so far this year following weeks of summer heat. The largest wildfire burned in the wooded, mountainous Arouca area - 185 miles north of Lisbon - since Monday, leading to the closure of the scenic trails of Passadicos do Paiva, a popular tourist attraction. Some 800 firefighters and seven waterbombing aircraft tackled the blaze. 'There was a huge effort during the night, so now we have a somewhat calmer situation,' Civil Protection Commander Helder Silva told reporters, cautioning that shifting strong winds and a difficult terrain meant their work was far from over. 'It's a very large wildfire in areas with difficult access,' he said. Further north, a blaze raged from Saturday in the Peneda-Geres national park near the Spanish border, enveloping nearby villages in thick smoke that led to orders for residents to stay at home. Portuguese firefighters managed to control two large fires that started on Monday in the central areas of Penamacor and Nisa. Authorities said the Penamacor blaze had destroyed 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of forest. British tourists were put on alert as Greece wildfires spread amid a 44C heatwave in late July, causing homes to go up in flames in the coastal towns of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari 25 miles southeast of Athens. Some 145 firefighters, 44 fire engines, ten firefighting planes and seven helicopters were deployed on site as residents of the town of Kryoneri, 12.5miles northeast of Athens, received three SMS warnings to evacuate on July 26.
