Par Theo Zuili
Published on 30 Jul 23 at 6:06 See my news Follow Actu Lyon There was a time in Lyon when it was possible to swim in floating pools on the Rhône and the Saône. (Swimming pool boats in 1894 on the Rhône – ©Archives de Lyon / 2PH/239)
According to tradition, the true Lyonnais must to know how to swim before knowing how to read. For most of Lyon’s history, its inhabitants bathed regularly in the Rhône and Saône. It is only recently that it is forbidden to set foot there.
Prior to this ban in 2001, floating pools were even in vogue.
The habit of bathing in the Rhône and the Saône
The people of Lyon always seem to have been attracted by the idea of bathing in one of the two rivers in the city. It is only since 2001 that it is forbidden to give in to this desire because of the dangerous currents and what litters the bottoms of the river and the river.
In the Middle Ages, people regularly took a dip close to what is now Place Bellecour. The number of drowning deaths caused at this time by this habit is unknown.
It was in the Saône, where the current is much lower than in the Rhône, that local residents favored their baths.
The rise of floating pools
So alone a sandy beach separated the river from the city. It was only much later, after the floods of 1840 and 1856, that we wanted to tame the banks of the Rhone to transform the floodplains into safe ground.
Bathing places were organized in Lyon at the beginning of the 19ᵉ century. The smugglers and their “spades”, these small boats used to connect the four banks at a time when bridges were counted on the fingers of one hand, have adapted their offer by bathing.
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This name was attributed by extension to the ships which were little by little authorized to settle at the edges of the quays to become real floating pools.
The rivers are disappearing from life in Lyon
The concept seems to appeal to some of the Lyonnais. These mariners respond to the growing demand in the population of securityof modesty et hygiene.
The dozens of “spades” that are set up are paid private swimming pools where women and men are separate and where business is monitored.
Naturally fed by river waterthese boats on which we learn to swim are also used to wash: the dirt passes through the bars and is carried away by the current.
The spades then offered a safe way to bathe in the Rhône and the Saône. (©Lyon Archives 63FI/23 / Gustave Garnier – 1892)
The famous floods of 1840 and 1856 marked the beginning of the decline of this activity. The rivers, then bubbling with activity, are gradually abandoned. They gradually leave the daily life of the Lyonnais.
Some swimming pool boats will still survive until the Second World War.
Maybe someday ?
One might think that the history of bathing in the waterways of Lyon stop there. After all, the Tony Bertrand nautical center was designed to perform of a city that likes to bathe. And the Rhône is now filled with countless tons of waste.
But in the 21ᵉ century, the long queues and the prices put off the people of Lyon. Faced with the shortage of swimming pools in the city, the people of Lyon took advantage of the participatory budget of the City of Lyon to reassert their ancestral wish. The idea of bathing again in the Rhône or the Saône was thus invited to the town hall.
The mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet, who focuses during this mandate on our river and our river through his “water festival”, is working to determine if swimming would be possible again. No date for this answer has not yet been announced, but perhaps the Lyonnais will be able to reconnect with this tradition.
2023-07-30 10:23:59
#Lyons #Floating #pools #Rhône #story
