Piscine Paul Valeyre

It’s tough swimming in public pools in Paris. The hours are limited, the lanes are restricted, there are too many swimmers per lane, and the swimmers are not separated by speed or stroke. Basically, it’s a free-for-all. At 7 AM, there can be six, seven or eight swimmers per lane - and they can be doing anything, breaststroke, backstroke, and even just slow paddling. The numbers drop a little toward the end of the session. Still, if you have to swim, you have to swim.

A €1 coin is required for the lockers. Deduct 15 minutes from the stated closing time; they get you out of the pool then and proceed to close the whole place at the advertised time.

Three floors underground - claustrophobic, yet has swimming lanes; the water is clean, the showers less so…

Yowch! Not for the faint-hearted. Murderously crowded during weekday hours midday. 14 to 18 people in the "rapide" lane trying to swim circles, most ignoring any sort of lane etiquette, half puddling along doing breast or backstroke while others try to swim freestyle. The hours are limited - 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. It's clean, well-lit with high ceiling (I didn't find it claustrophobic).