PARIS, Jan 3 — Nudist pioneer Christiane Lecocq, who founded one of the first naturist clubs in Europe and was instrumental in bringing the naked lifestyle into the mainstream, was to be buried on Friday after dying aged 103.

Lecocq and her husband Albert set up the French Naturist Federation (FFN) in 1950, which spawned an international branch three years later and is seen as the spearhead of a movement that now boasts some 16 million members across 38 different countries.

“Since the 1950s, the Lecocq couple straight away put the social and familial character of naturism to the fore and demonstrated that it could become a tourist attraction like any other,” said FFN vice-president Yves Leclerc.

He added that the nudist colony set up by the Lecocqs in Montalivet in southwestern France had become “the most important in Europe”.

“If France is today the world’s leading naturist destination, with 3.5 million participants, of which 1.5 million are French, there is no doubt it is thanks to her,” wrote Armand Jamier, current president of the FFN, on its site.

Christiane Lecocq passed away on December 24 in the town of Chatou in the Yvelines region near Paris where she lived most of her life.

She was due to be buried alongside her husband in a local cemetery. — AFP