Hi. I’m traveling to Paris and Blois and looking for some possible pools I can get a swim in. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Danny
Check out annettek.fr
50m heated outdoor pool on a barge in the Seine, 2km from Eiffel Tower with a full service health club and restaurant underneath. A bit expensive at around 16 Euros on weekdays but well worth it
around 500m from the original statue of liberty
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that is perfect! thank you!
Annette K is quite expensive. 50m pools are Piscine Keller and Piscine Blomet that I use almost daily and are very cheap. Both of them have one lane that is for paddles and Keller usually segments it also by speeds. Keller might be even open air soon. Otherwise plenty of other pools to look at here: Piscines - Ville de Paris
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I swam in Piscine Keller that is around 2km from Annettek.fr. I found Keller to be a shit show with 20 people per lane when I went (50LCM set up) and half the people doing breast stroke !!! At Annettek, I paid the 16 Euros but half the time I had maybe 1-2 people in my lane, so it was bliss particualy swimming at night with the Eiffel Tower lit up !!! I agree for day in day out the barge swim is expensive, but as a tourist, it’s a one of a kind experience.
Old and even young french ladies are definitely a nuissance esp when they are ignorant of speed indications but so are some men. When you go at peak hours you can have some frustration but as a tourist unlikely bound to swim at peak hours, i.e. lunch and after 6pm.
On some websites they indicate the occupancy rate btw
I forgot to mention, the pool in Puteaux is 50m too and open air and is not on the Paris pool list but quite fabulous looking too and reasonably close to Paris. A triathlete friend goes there often, likes it a ton.
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Thanks for the info about the pool at Puteaux. I just looked it up and looks awesome
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It’s now a quarter century since I lived in Paris, so maybe things have changed, but back then at least, swimming in Paris was an adventure. Had to wear a speedo (I’m guessing ‘danny’=guy), had to wear a swim cap. Often, a pool would have lockers that required a specific coin (pre-Euro it would often be a 2=franc coin; no, 2 1-franc coins didn’t work, and no, the person at reception could not give you a 2-franc coin for 2 1-franc coins). Some pools have lots of space, clear lanes, and people swim freestyle, but those are the exception.
I did have many great swims at Piscine Georges Vallery (people will try to tell you it’s Paul; it’s not, it’s George) and some perfectly fine swims at Piscine Pontoise provided I went after 10pm. The pool on the Seine opened after I left, it looks awesome but I’ve never gone.
Ended up here and loved it. Great place to get a swim in a unique outdoor setting! Thank you
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Hey I am in Paris now. My sister dragged me to Les Halles yesterday and it was a shit show of 15 per lane (albeit in 50m) and also people randomly trying to pass in congestion in the fast lane trying to hit interval times near the wall and then promptly stopping after taking 20m to make passes (I watched this play out from the deck…I don’t pass in open swim, its too troublesome and break into drills if I come up upon someone).
I am thinking of going to Puteaux tomorrow but heard that there are limitations of preference for locals due to heat protocol effect (they want to give access to locals or something like that so they can cool in the heat).
Anyway, will swim at Annettek.fr today, but if anyone wants to go to Puteaux tomorrow, I’m in.
I’ll be swimming at Piscine Blomet tomorrow 7am, these days it’s very clean and it’s also fairly empty (except for one fat guy on the fast lane who bothers usually) on the 50m and it’s open till late afternoon, so no time limit. Also will be there Thursday and Friday most likely.
Les Halles is always a shitshow, sorry for this experience.
Enjoy Annette K in any case. Puteaux is too far for me from 15th Arrondissement.
OK let me check out Blomet but unlikely I am hauling by butt out of bed at 7 am on vacation!!!. I am in 17th at the moment. Annettek.fr is in 15th? I was there at lunch time and a bit packed but then it cleared out and it was two per lane.
Looked at the directions so we’re going to try Blumet tomorrow (Wed)
I used Blomet yesterday. Out of Les Halles, AnnetteK, Keller and Blomet (all 50m options), I like Blomet the best (AnnetteK is a unique experience, but with its narrow lanes and no markings on the bottom with more traffic its not as fun).
I was going to try to Puteaux, but on my last day heading to Blomet and save Puteaux for next year’s trip to Paris after Nice Worlds.
I should be in water 10-11:30 am today to avoid the lunch crowd.
What I do is if its all good behind me is turn at 25m and just split my lap up that way. Enjoy public swim in paris, sounds like a complete shit show. However when I am travelling I also dont really push it hard particularly if doing heaps of walking and sight seeing
Yeah it’s all pretty well random sets , push offs and turning points and forms of motion (drills, kick in 4 strokes, swim in 4 strokes)…kind of like a run fartlek workout
…sprint to random points,.cruise to random points and 60-90 min later you got a good workout just have no idea what it was but your heart and lungs and muscles feel it anyway
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Glad you had a good time. It really in itself a very clean pool inside and outside. I was worried a bit because it seems yesterday morning all the regulars suddenly came back all at once to Blomet so it was more crowded than the past few weeks of full vacay. Also right now Montparnasse is being renovated, so lots of regulars there are coming to Blomet. But usually I think between 8am to 12pm should be a good-ish time during the vacay (sadly it’s locked for schools throughout the regular year).
Blomet really can be a bit hit or miss in the morning swims outside of the holidays sadly, as a club is booking 2 of the 5 lanes and the 5th lane is sometimes for private lessons at 7am. I can’t wait when I move to the South of France and get myself a house pool with a bungee rope and just avoid this hassle altogether.
Blomet was not bad today. There was a lane shut for aqua-aerobic of some sort, so the fast lane got busy with a combo of competent swimmers and what I was define as “grannies with fins and paddles”…then I realized that I am probably the same age as the grannies lol (so they probably were wondering who that grandpa is doing sets of 100 fly…) !!! Thankfully I was going faster than them without fins and paddles. It all works out as long as you just wait for an appropriate “departure time” so you don’t have to pass anyone !!! Thanks for the suggestion!
Yea it’s the issue I face 3-4x times a week - overtaking semi-competent swimmers, grannies on fins and paddles, big chunky guys swimming in the middle of the lane, but also not being in the way of the 1 super fast guy on the lane who outswims me by 10 seconds. Bienvenue à Paris! 