Piscine Molitor in Paris

You may know about “Piscine Molitor” because of Pi Patel from Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”. Here is the real mc Coy with real – not 3D – characters swimming in the mid of Winter in near freezing temperature.

A swimmer in Piscine Molitor, the almost Art Deco swimming pool (explanations per below).
Piscine Molitor - Paris - 2016

When we visited Piscine Molitor on Dec 3, 2016 it was nearly freezing. I wasn’t expecting to see people swimming in the outdoors pool but there were quite a few in fact.

Piscine Molitor - Paris - 2016

The 1929 Swimming pool (there are two of them, one indoors, one outdoors) was inaugurated by Johnny Weissmuller. Before he impersonated Tarzan, Weissmuller was a US Olympic swimming champion (he took to swimming after he contracted Polio in order to fight the disease). The pool is also famous for the introduction of the Bikini in 1946.

Piscine Molitor - Paris - 2016

In the footsteps (or breaststrokes rather) of Johnny Weissmuller.

Piscine Molitor - Paris - 2016

At night, the pool takes different colours. That didn’t exist in the 1930s.

NewImage

[Photo (cc) Wikimedia commons: Piscine Molitor indoors pool in 2011, one year before it was destroyed and rebuilt]

The building was razed to the ground in 2012 and rebuilt from scratch. Even though it was a listed building, its exterior has been painted a garish yellow which hasn’t much to do with the original 1930s whitewashed walls. The original concrete was said to be too deteriorated and had to be taken down. Well, bottom line is that it’s neither a true 1930s building nor a true modern 21st century building. Both sides seem to be squabbling but at least it makes for nice pictures.

Piscine Molitor - Paris - 2016
Yann Gourvennec
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Yann Gourvennec
Yann Gourvennec

I'm a photographer and watercolourist. I have practiced photography since childhood and digital photography since 1995. I turned it into my main occupation in 2021. I own a photo studio in Paris, France.
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Je suis photographe et aquarelliste. Je pratique la photographie depuis l'enfance et la photographie numérique depuis 1995. J'en ai fait mon activité principale en 2021. Je possède un studio photo dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris

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