Piscine des Vernets

Five stars says it all.

This is a good 50-metre indoor pool, with a 25-metre pool as well, the latter mostly used for lessons and children playing in the water. Everything is kept very clean, both in the pool and in the changing rooms. My only difficulty was finding the entrance. The building where the pool is located has an exit, but the entrance is in the building opposite where the ice-skating/ice hockey rink is. You then go down the stairs to enter the adjacent swimming building.

I did have a problem with a child swimming the wrong lane with her parent. Everyone else was swimming the correct way but they persisted in swimming the opposite way and having collisions with other swimmers. The lifeguards did not do anything about this. Otherwise, the swimmers stuck to lane rules and let you pass at the end most of the time. There is plenty of space to overtake along the lane, too, as the lanes are wide enough.

This is a very large, clean but somewhat soulless facility. The water is a good temperature for serious swimming, circa 27º-28ºC. Half the pool was laned during our mid-afternoon Sunday visit; the lanes are relatively narrow. One lane was dedicated to anyone wishing to use pool toys (flippers, floats, paddles). The other lanes were not speed-designated. The result was a mixture of slow, medium and fast swimmers satisfactory to no-one. Pool etiquette was poor. Since it is a 50m pool, there is the possibility of overtaking part-way down the lane, something that is difficult in a shorter pool.

I swam there with a fabulous Masters swim team in the 50m pool. Bring your own lock or rent one. Showers are clean.

The pool was very nice, very clean. The swimmers were very polite. At mid-week, late afternoon/early evening there were 3 or 4 people per lane. Highly recommended.

There are not always two lanes dedicated to training swimming. It’s very busy in the evenings, three or four people per lane is not standard. Swimmers do not follow pool etiquette.