MM Dix-Neuf: The French Pool Experience

It's been quite a while since I've done a Monday Minute, so here goes!

Last week we had a gorgeous warm, blue sky day, so knowing it was the last nice day forecast for quite a while my friends, Katie and Val, and I decided to hit up a French public swimming pool.


I had read about a floating swimming pool on the Seine last summer, but never made my way there.  We decided for the price (5E for 2 hours), it was too good to pass up.  And while it was beautiful and very refreshing on a hot day, it was a total French experience.  If you live in France, you know what I mean by a French experience.  If you don't, read on...

 Pretty beautiful right?  No doubt, the setting is amazing.  But oh yeah, this picture I took?  Got yelled at by a security guard for taking it.  Why, you ask?  Good question.

That's just the beginning of the French experience.  Notice how everyone has swim caps on, yep mandatory.  Therefore, we all ended up with these super stylish 3E caps at the end of day.

We were most excited about the solarium...rows and rows of chairs set on the balcony above just where this picture was taken.  Upon arrival, it was closed with no explanation of why.  Just closed and they don't know for how long.  So, instead we laid on the ground packed like sardines trying to make enough room for our legs without kicking the people next to us.

We made the most of our time there, and when our 2 hours were up, Katie stopped at the vending machine to buy a bottle of water.  The machine took her 2E coin, but was out of water and wouldn't give her a refund.  While she went to find a worker, another worker came up to me, and I explained the problem.  When Katie returned with another worker, the two workers proceeded to get into a fight about whose responsibility the vending machine is.  I explained we just wanted her money back, and their response was to call the phone number listed on the machine because they have no part in it. Of course the phrase  "Non, c'est pas possible" was thrown around several times (because it wouldn't be a French experience if it wasn't!), and we finally had to settle on buying a pop just to not waste her money.  My French is good enough now that I felt confident enough to engage in an argument about putting an out of order sign on their machine, or perhaps (gasp) calling the company to tell them to come soon because there's a problem, but apparently it's not good enough to actually succeed in an argument.

Ah, well, it was still a good way to pass a few hours with some lovely friends! :)