Jumping Into the Paris 2024 Olympics

 

I’m having a ball back in the pool 🏊painting pool pictures in water 🌊 color 

Photo by Tom Jenkins for The Guardian

I’ve been MIA getting my life back from a prison state & a few days of 101 temperatures 🥵 to focus on the Paris 2024 Olympics

Finally able to appreciate the OLYMPICS 🤸‍♂️

Then and Now

Yesterday I went back to my old nabe/quartier the 19th for a number of reasons.

Where I live now is quite a step up...understatement.

My old stairway (52 steps that kept my derriere smaller).

My grand stairway has a 17th century history I can't begin to imagine and many more steps. I live on the 7th floor. Resolved: take the stairs more and the l’encenser less!

The old place was TEAL city.

My Brit landlady Rachel Khoo, of The Little Paris Kitchen fame showed me how to light the hob (a frightening mystery to me as an American).

"Now remember, if you go away 1-2 weeks, do turn off the gas" she warned me.

I didn't get up the nerve to 'light the hob' for THREE WHOLE MONTHS. I never 'turned off the gas' either. Fortunately I did not burn down the house

Once I got the hang of lighting the hob, it became my BBF. I adored that little cooker. So much better than the electric burners I have now.

Bear loved our work area.

I dragged an ‘objet trouvé’, a pink secretary chair found in the street, to the new digs. Bear 🐻 settled in nicely.

The old place had it's charms but I don't think I could have managed many tea parties there.

The new diggs are streamline. A place for everything and everything in it's place, if only I could remember where I put stuff. If you've ever lived on a yacht please advise.

My raison d'etre for visiting the 19th was to join piscine Pailleron.

This has to be the most gorgeous pool in a city with many divine pools. I grew attached to the 5 heated pools and local families attending. 

Now I have Art Déco 🏊🏽‍♀️ PONTOISE Piscine in - pas mal. 

I really miss Parc Butte de Chaumont just a few steps away.

So many wishes made here came true.

Lovely flowers 🌺 too.

Franprix next to my old apartment may be the ONLY place in all Paris to have chunky peanut butter (from Nicaragua no less). Believe me I have looked 👁️ 

I will never complain about living next to la Seine.

It's life-changing. An experience words can't describe. 

6:44 AM this morning the view out my window is pretty spectacular.

Big Merci to all who subscribed to the Paris Sketch Letters!

You've helped make my life in Paris unforgettable.

Swim:why we love the water

 I took Lynn Sherr's SWIM on my Kindle to Paris to motivate me to hit many of Paris' community piscines.
'We swam before we walked or breathed, but then we forgot. The same thing happened outside the womb:swimming was practiced regularly in ancient times butvirturally disappeared for centuries'.

 I've been going to piscine St. Germain 6 years running. But this time I made it to Pontoise, perhaps the most spectacular pool in Paris. Wow

 Paris has 38 public pools! 🏊🏊🏽‍♀️🏊🏊🏽‍♀️

 They are extremement well run.
This online chart tells you daily which pools are open and hours. After my Paris bus guide this is my bible.

 Click on each pool's name and all info is there:
Metros, velib stations, buses, free classes etc.

 The entrance to St. Germain 12, rue Lobineau 75006 is a hop away from Patisserie Gerard Mulot.

 Every pool has vending machines selling cheap caps, bathing suits, goggles, everything but towels and flip flops/les tongs.
So don't tell me you left your stuff at home.
'Pools used to be called tanks, whether they were actual tanks full of water or just holes in the ground. What you wore in a tank was 'a tank suit'.

 At St.Germain they give you a hanger for your clothes and you go into the changing cabinets. You hand it back to the attentant but hold onto the red rubber numbered# bracelet. Post-swim you hand in the bracelet to get your stuff back. et voila!

 St. Germain is huge and very clean! All of the pools I visited were the same.

 I felt like Burt Lancaster swimming my way across Paris' pools.

 Be not afraid.
The pools come with crystal clear instructions - les regles

Illustrated charts of dos and DON'TS.

 At piscine Keller 15th arr. you get duckie 🦆  instructions.

 The entry way at Keller is very orderly. You either buy an individual entry ticket or have an abonnement/subscription card good for 3 months. Pas cher. Pas de tout.

This is piscine Butte au Caille in the 13th. Once famous for using fresh water but someone said this is no longer true. Still a gorgeously huge and clean pool - altogether a delight. You are not allowed to take pictures at the pool btw 🛑

 The pool attendent noticed my bathing bag.

'Ah...Pierre Herme! the best pastry!'

'But it's $$$' I responded.

'Yes, but it's the BEST!'

Listen to your pool attendent. They know.

 All pools have hair dryers (really hand dryers) though the changing room setups can vary from pool. Most pools have lockers. You will need a 1 euro or .50 to use them. It is returned, when you get your things.

 The tarifs are low 3-4 euros a swim.
Better yet get a card for 10 swims.

This summer I'll get the 3 month card and hit as many pools as possible. Anyone can swim. You don't have to be a resident or French.

Gerard Mulot (open at 6:30 am) is just down the block from the pool. Pierre Hermé is a 5 minutes walk. 

 You can happily 'reward' yourself for a good workout immediately post-swim = Instant gratification.

If you love swimming - (Lynn Sherr notes, it's the best of all exercises and I agree) don't miss her celebratory book, SWIM.
It will get you into the water in Paris or at home.
'This book is about:
an inquiry into why we swim—the lure, the hold, the timeless magic of being in the water. It’s a look at how swimming has changed over the millennia, how this ancient activity is becoming more social than solitary today. It’s about our relationship with the water, with our fishy forebearers, and with the costumes that we wear'.

sing THE SWIMMING SONG!
🏊Listen to Lynn tell you why to jump in.🏊🏽‍♀️