Gaston Durville

Gaston Durville (1887-1971) was a French physician who, with his brother, André Durville, was one of the initiators of naturism in France during the interwar period.

In 1911 he graduated from Montpellier University as a physician, his thesis was entitled in French: Étude étiologique de l’hypnose, lit. 'A Study of the Etiology of Hypnosis'.

With his brother, André Durville he established the Naturist Society in 1927. In 1928 the brothers founded the Physiopolis naturist camp on Platais island in the Seine 27.6 kilometres (17.1 mi) from the centre of Paris. In 1930 they established the naturist village of Heliopolis on the Île du Levant, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.(Harp 2011)

During his medical training, he worked for a time at the hospice at Brévannes under the tutelage of Dr Paul Carton,(Drouard 1998) where he gained his knowledge of natural treatments.

Gaston Durville joined the Vegetarian Society of France, and became well known for his vegetarian/naturist ideas. At the same time many vegetarians and naturopaths showed hostility to foreign breakfasts. The doctors Gaston and André Durville blamed the English breakfast consisting of bacon and eggs for being too high in protein: “The English breakfast with ham, bacon and eggs is nonsense even for a cold and wet country such as England and to a greater extent for France”(Drouard 2003)

After World War I he published a voluminous treatise on naturist healing, La Cure naturiste followed by a series of 13 booklets on the naturist therapy and "psycho medicine". In 1923, together with his brother André, he launched the magazine La Vie Sage, monthly review of naturism and psychic education - which took the title Naturisme in 1930.

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