How do you get a French beach body? You take your beautiful body down to a beach in France! 🏖
Seriously, though, you’ll find all shapes and sizes on the beaches in this stunning country. A question I frequently receive while I am out in Bretagne is this one:
Can you 🏊♀️ in the water in Brittany? Isn’t it COLD?!
And the answer is YES!!! You can swim in the gorgeous turquoise sea and enjoy the water year-round with the right equipment. I often see seniors aqua jogging in the ocean in the dead of winter. They don wetsuits to stay warm, but much like the trend of taking cold showers or baths, the belief is that the sea is beneficial to your health. “Respire. Relax. Faire une promenade. Respirez l’air salin.”
As you may have noticed in my recent posts, people are swimming in the ocean right now. However, I would say that the warmer months (June through early September) are best for a lazy day on the beach.
Along the Cotes Émeraude, there are pockets of beaches tucked away all along the coastline. If a beach is jam-packed with tourists, grab your phone and open up your favorite map application. Zoom in and look for smaller, more private beaches nearby. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy a drive along a gorgeous coastline?!
At one of my fav beaches in Erquy, there is seasonal fishing for “crabe araignée.” 🦀 They look like the giant red snow crab that they catch up in Alaska. But unlike the deep sea fishing for ocean crab, the locals free dive for them. It’s SO much fun to watch! Some wear wetsuits but on nice days, most jump right into the ocean with relatively simple gear.
I often see the divers with a round floaty tube, like the one you put around a young child. The tube has a net in the middle and a long rope attached. They swim out a bit, not far, and because the water is crystal clear, the diver can see the crab on the bottom. In one swift move, they swim down, grab the crab (sometimes with spear guns), et voila! There’s dinner!
Bisous, darlings,
Shannon