MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Are there any "legal" alternatives for an English gentlemen?
Yeah, swimming trunks. And don't listen to people who call them budgy smugglers.
Sorry mate, it's actually enforced at the campsites we've been to. You could try the Daniel Craig look with the slightly longer shorts, but nothing baggy I'm afraid....
They're much better for swimming in. like Lycra's better for cycling in.
It's a bit weird that Johnnie Frenchie insists but when in Rome etc.
I got some cycling short style trunks and immediately went from the medium lane to mixing it in the fast lane.
You could try the Daniel Craig look with the slightly longer shorts, but nothing baggy I'm afraid...
Pretty much what I did. I waited till I got there and picked up some cheapies from Carrfour or whatever convenient supermarket chain is over there. Far easier to buy something compliant than over here.
Thongs are not wrong.
Embrace the fit, the grip, the slip.
Unless you have a beerbelly Obvz.
Don't forget to model them for a pic in a nice hat back at the caravan before setting off to the pool. best pic eva daaadd.
What is the reason for mandatory obscene swimming trunks?
Hygiene, apparently.
What is the reason for mandatory obscene swimming trunks?
So the frenchies can laugh at the portly English ale loving gentlemen.
Dirt and contaninaments from the beach.
The rule is in place because Johnny Frenchie doesn't want to pull pubes out of their pool filters.
Saying that I haven't seen any signs to that effect in 10 years and even then they treat them with a glorious French shrug if you're wearing long shorts as long as they're swimming ones, they assume they've got a mesh liner.
The mesh liner is the problem. It lets the e-coli through.
There's another reason for the ban according to some, it dissuades some groups who tend to cause trouble in swimming pools and prevents them hiding weapons in their shorts. I live near the 50m open air pool (close enough to hear the Tannoy) and since the Bermuda ban the coach load of CRS hasn't been called out.
[url= http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2009/07/24/643890-piscines-le-bermuda-touche-pas-coule.html ]It's an on-going debate.[/url]
Just get some in a Decathlon when you get there, loads of choice, trunk ones are slightly less bad.
It's funny all the non French Europeans including Brits just sit in shorts with budgie smugglers underneath then whip then off to jump in the pool. Where as the Frenchies just strut around in theirs no matter what their body shape. Must be their gallic confidence 🙂
it lets E coli throuugh? through what exactly ? a .5micron membrane isnt used in budgie smuglers so thats a load of tosh, unless E coli bacteria have grown in size and are all now 100micron so woven poly / cotton can filter them out.
I was told its to discourage people from playing volleyball etc on the beach , then going swimming and transfering sand / mud into the pool and its filter systems ,
and I was also told that is to stop pervs being obvious pervs in public. this might be a load of tosh .
i personaly beleive a french woman brought in the law so that a) All the frechies could laugh at overweight pasty English and Germans or B) there would be no misrepresntation of the fact in the 'man inches'dept.
Don't shoot me I'm the messenger.
Google jammers
Decathlon
Nabaija b-ready long shorts black / blue
Sorry won't link.
I use these if I'm going for lengths swimming. I am not a honed athlete!
A lot better than speedos and I expect would be France/Holland friendly. They are snug but the length smooths the dangle bulges if you follow me.
Far as I knew it was to prevent baggies from catching on features like slides.
Far as I knew it was to prevent baggies from catching on features like slides.
A common problem as you get older and gravity takes hold I hear.
It's also about water conservation, Baggies drag loads of water out of the pool, so it's more economical to use tight fitting trunks.
When in Rome and all that just get them on and MTFU
back in the 70s-80s they were all there was and TBH if I was swimming especially in surf I wouldn't want to be wearing a very draggy pair of baggy shorts
I got some of those Decathlon Nabaija B-fit ones.
Can do pics if needed 🙂
Similar to this
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/b-fit-shorts-black-grey-id_8360322.html
A mate was told No! To his shorts, the old lady St the campsite wasnt quite ready for his alternative...
Apparently that's not allowed either
It's also about water conservation, Baggies drag loads of water out of the pool, so it's more economical to use tight fitting trunks.
This is the reason, dull but true.
As someone said earlier, get some Jammers. I've used these in French pools with no problems, and given the borderline malnourishment that us regular night shift workers enjoy, 'muffin top' isn't too much of an issue.
I've always been told it was on health & safety grounds as the French had some drownings, where baggies got trapped/caught in filters/ steps etc
I'm having to endure this nightmare at the moment! We were told it was to do with grubby bastids wearing board shorts all day then just jumping in the pool without changing out of dirty stuff. They suggest people less likely to do this in lycra trunks!!
Just one of many stupid rules here that the French seem to love lording over tourists, like closing the water slides at 5.30 when the pool opens until 7!
We've only been to one (Out of many) where it had been enforced. I was a bit narked TBH. The lifeguard said it was because looser shorts could be born elsewhere and bring dirt into the pool. I told him he should be worrying more about the dirt [i]inside[/i] people's trunks - the fromage aux nob. I think it says a lot about me, that I am still proud of having the presence of mind that I uttered that line.
On the many occasions we've been to France I have never witnessed this enforced.
There was one trip where Mrs E was insistent I had to wear some 'Daniel Craig' type shorts at the pool. When we got there all the french lads where in baggies. Cue a large sigh of relief from me.
I guess I may have been lucky.
Until the late eighties everyone from uk wore trunks, I had some proper Tom Daly's when I was 17/18 in early eighties.
Baggy shorts are an American import!
... I have some French supermarket Daniel Craig's for France, but may start wearing them to local pool now.
A few years ago I was swimming in the pool at an upmarket gym and overtook a bloke in a gold thong trunk. I think that is probably taking it too far
Just get one of those half-thongs
Job done
'Board' shorts get heavy, clingy and are an unwelcome distraction when popping up. Smugglers are much more practical either with or without wetsuit. It seems that the shorts proliferated from conservative/religious communities in the US where people are taught to be embarrassed by their bodies and therefore require such 'modest' dress, a bit like a boy-burka.
Ah, les slips de bains. I can't see what's wrong with some decent swimming shorts, and neither do at least half the pools I've been to in France.
very much enforced in pools I've been to in France.
Fortunately nearly all the ones Ive been to nowadays have a vending machine in the foyer to buy approved jockeys. They tend to be Daniel Craig style half way between bollock pouches and mid-thigh jammers.
They do at least dry out quickly unlike bermudas.
Are you lot worried that you will look silly in a pair of tight trunks? Or are you concerned that the ladies will be unable to control themselves at the sight?
I posted in the recent swimming thread about my local pool banning thong bikinis. My wife thinks this is ridiculous, as she's of the mind that wearing any clothes to go swimming is daft. And the British male fear of trunks is all about insecurity, let's face it! 😆 We're so hung up over our bodies it's just stupid. Maybe if our society was less sexually repressed, we'd be freer to strip off, and probably be healthier as a result.
Been going to Eurocamp for years and never used anything other than baggy shorts with a liner for swimming.


