What a great read from NYT: To Experience Paris Up Close and Personal, Plunge Into a Public Pool
Swimming in Paris is a full-on cultural experience, offering intimate views into the French psyche, which is on near-naked display in the swimming lanes, locker rooms and (mostly coed) showers. Swimming in Paris is a full-on cultural experience. Many public pools don’t just feel like historical monuments, they are historical monuments. Backstroking beneath the buttresses stretching across the vaulted ceiling of the 99-year-old Butte-aux-Cailles pool feels like backstroking through a cathedral.
