Help! Where’s the best place to swim in Paris if your cruise pace is 1’35â€ish (/100m)? I’m an average swimmer back in CA, but here I’m apparently Michael Phelps and it totally sucks. I try to do a structured workout with intervals, and usually end up pissing off half of the lane. Apparently, you’re supposed to wait patiently behind the guy doing the splits, er, I mean, breaststroke in the fast lane, the girl kicking at 3’00â€/100, and the old ladies who think they belong in the fast lane because there’s a sign that says “palmes.†I pass them as politely as possible, but one guy stopped his workout the other day just to give me an earful.
Oh, and doing breaststroke with fins on is perfectly acceptable, but even the smallest hand paddles are verboten.
There must be people in Paris who know how to swim. Where are they?
Don’t know about Paris, but my experience in France was that everyone I shared a lane with was an asshole on a 2 week vacation.
My cruise pace at the time was probably around the same as yours.
In Geneva the lifeguard almost kicked me out of the pool for using paddles.
Swimming in North America can definitely have it’s frustrations, but it was bizarre.
I will say swimming in Germany was awesome. Germans and rule following and all that… never a problem.
Help! Where’s the best place to swim in Paris if your cruise pace is 1’35â€ish (/100m)? I’m an average swimmer back in CA, but here I’m apparently Michael Phelps and it totally sucks. I try to do a structured workout with intervals, and usually end up pissing off half of the lane. Apparently, you’re supposed to wait patiently behind the guy doing the splits, er, I mean, breaststroke in the fast lane, the girl kicking at 3’00â€/100, and the old ladies who think they belong in the fast lane because there’s a sign that says “palmes.†I pass them as politely as possible, but one guy stopped his workout the other day just to give me an earful.
Oh, and doing breaststroke with fins on is perfectly acceptable, but even the smallest hand paddles are verboten.
There must be people in Paris who know how to swim. Where are they?
Maybe Ray Maker will see your post and chime in. You could also drop him a ST DM or check his DC Rainmaker blog for his Paris swimming posts. I don’t really remember him finding anywhere to swim without some of the issues you mention.
Thanks! Your recommendation led me to https://www.dcrainmaker.com/paris-swim-bike-run. Has some running and cycling routes that look great and I haven’t tried yet; the bad news is the swimming section is nothing short of depressing.
I have heard the fine for swimming in the Seine is 15 EUR. That sounds totally worth it to me. And if I only get caught one out of three times, I’ll break even.
But seriously, there ARE decent French swimmers, and I imagine there must be some in Paris. How do they pull it off? More specifically, WHERE do they swim? Masters squads?
I can confirm there are loads of good swimmers in Paris. The thing is they swim with clubs, on separate lines and/or times from the general population. Masters squads are not a thing here. And as you said, the other option is swimming with the public. I did that for a year before joining a club, and it was a nightmare. It’s close to impossible to log a decent session.
I wouldn’t swim in the Seine if I were you, the water quality is very low, it’s not worth it risking your health. Plus it’s not very wide and the boat trafic might be a problem.
If I were you, I would look for a privately owned pool, they are a tad more expensive but as a result, less crowded. My club is renting its lines in one of them I would recommend. It’s not in downtown Paris but right at the outskirts, in the city of Vincennes, which is just outside the 12th district of Paris (southeast). The pool is a 25 meters one and is named “The Dome” (https://ledomedevincennes.fr/). I swim here with my team on wednesday (7:30 - 8:30 AM) and friday (20:00 - 22:00 PM). On wednesday, I can see in the other lanes that it’s decent (maybe 5-6 people per lane, not all good swimmers but no wading grannies either). When I leave at 8:30, most people leave also to get to work and the pool is yours, if you can extend your time frame. On friday night, it’s the same at the beginning of my session but I would say the public lanes are emptying as soon as 8:30 and you can get a line for yourself or split it in two. I don’t know for the other days, but they have pretty extended schedules.
Let me know if you have other questions or need help.
I went swimming at the 50m pool under the Les Halles shopping complex near the Louvres. It was pretty good…but we’re talking 1993…literally 30 years ago.
Completely different public lap swimming culture in most of Europe…
One favourite was being hit with a long pole by a life guard for not wearing a swim cap and shouted at in French.
How long are you in Paris for? That would impact on whether I would want to join a private pool / private squad or just do some hypoxic style work and easy / loosen 1500 - 2000m for a few weeks.
I use the Paris pools every year and although the lanes are busier then here in the US I take it as a workout, passing people making sure no one is coming the other way, is actually a great workout (sightseeing, rubbing shoulders, multiple acelerations) all very useful on a mass start triathlon. I like the outdoor pool at Puteaux just outside of Paris and the Halles pool in the center of Paris for indoor.
I was living in paris for 4 years up until a week ago.
As people have mentioned, depends on how long you are there for. Can recommend some clubs to get some private lanes (both tri clubs and swim clubs) however the more formal french clubs tend to insist on joining in sept. Have a look at the http://expatries-triathlon.com/
21 years since I swam there regularly, but the Piscine Georges Vallerey in the 20th was a very good pool. Often 37.5 meters long (it’s 50 M when it wants to be), there were decent swimmers there. Note that if you ask people in Paris about it, they will try to convince you that it’s Piscine Paul Valery, but it’s not.
Also, as you’ve probably discovered, there can be quite a series of requirements, some of which make sense in their own way (swim cap, speedo) and others that don’t (“must have 20 cent coin to operate locker, no we can’t make change for you”).
Good luck!
Bonjour tof! Merci, this is quite helpful! I will look into private pools, and/or perhaps a club. Do you know of any in the center? (We’re in the 4th.)
I have a feeling club hours probably won’t mesh with my parenting schedule – I’m basically limited to training before 7 AM or while the kids are at school. Please do let me know if you are aware of a club that trains during those times.
But in any case I’m willing to pay a bit more to be able to do 100s on 1’45" without provoking a fist fight (grandmère looks like she has a mean right cross ).
Thanks! This is my regular pool, best I’ve found, though I’m still not brave enough to do a flip turn in the 18" deep water at one end (why, oh, why, would you spend millions of EUR on a beautiful pool and not make it useable at both ends?), and it still has all of the problems listed above, though to a lesser degree than other pools.
Good practice for mass start events and/or catching the age group in front of you, I guess.
Thanks! And there’s a sauna for heat acclimation! Looks like my worst case scenario is I’ve traded my 5-days-a-week 3-hour R/T US work car/shuttle commute for a 3-days-a-week 1.5-hour R/T FR bike-to-pool commute. I’ll take it.
I am from Paris and been doing tri around 6 years, swimming is always a bit hectic unless you are in a club or can do less coveted times than lunchtime and 19-21h at les halles…
Villejuif (15 minutes south from Place d’Italie by bicycle) has a 50m indoor + 50m outdoor pool. Check before if they open (I saw a sign that they are on strike).
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