Pack a t-shirt and a cover-up in your beach bag. Once you step off the sand and onto a street, promenade, or into a shop or café, being shirtless or in just a bikini or swim shorts can draw a fine in a growing list of French coastal towns.
The bylaws vary town to town rather than being one national law, so what’s fine in one resort town can be a €150 ticket in the next one down the coast, when in doubt, assume the rule applies and change first.
- This is separate from the beach itself — toplessness and swimwear are still normal on the sand in most of France, the bylaws target the town center and promenade specifically, not the shoreline.
- French public pools have the opposite surprise — many require tight-fitting swim briefs (not board shorts or baggy trunks) for men, a hygiene rule that catches visitors off guard just as often as the shirtless bylaws do.