Summer on the Cote d’Azur. Could be July 1946. That’s when French engineer Louis Reard introduced the bikini. Reard named his design for the Bikini Atoll, where the first post-war tests of the atomic bomb were taking place.

Wearing a bikini and lounging on a chaise is the nubile “Queen of the Cote d’Azur,” Mme. Viseuse. Her top– a pair of rigid cones. We see her face in profile as she turns to look up at two bodybuilders standing beside her.

Battendier, barely contained in his swimsuit, literally and figuratively looks down at her. If he’s getting hard it’s not because of the lovely Mme. Viseuse. If he’s not hard, well, I shudder to think.

The other muscle god, Marcel Rouet, was twice awarded le Plus Bel Athlète de France (1936 and 1943). According to Wikipedia, he wrote "seven works on sexuality, in particular by approaching this theme through the mind." Ogling his body, it's not the angle I'm considering.

Rouet gazes upon Mme. Viseuse with a bemused expression, or maybe he’s incredulous. Obviously a posed image, it captures a candid moment like a good snapshot.

Written on verso: Mme. Viseuse, Reine de la Côte d'Azur en companie de Battendier, Apollon de la Côte d'Azur et Marcel Rouet, le  Plus Bel Athlète de France.

Stamped "Photo Serge," gloss paper, 9 1/2" x 11 3/4," undated.