The Bon-Secours pool: the swim that doesn't depend on the tide

On a coast where the sea walks out hundreds of metres twice a day, the people of Saint-Malo found the answer back in the 1930s: a granite basin set on the beach, which every high tide fills and renews before withdrawing. The Bon-Secours pool gives you a swim that does not depend on the hour of the tide, on a coast with Europe’s biggest tidal range; its three-tier diving platform turns up in a great many photographs of Saint-Malo.

A tide put to work

The principle fits in one sentence: at every high water, the sea comes over the rim and leaves a full basin behind. No pump, no filtration: the tide does everything, twice a day, for nearly a century now. When low water has made the beach immense and pushed the sea to the horizon, the pool is still there, full and deep, the only serious swim on this side of the ramparts. It is the same principle as the locks and the tide mills, which put the tidal range to work rather than fight it.

The diving platform has a place of its own: three concrete tiers from which generations of Malouins have jumped, the rite of passage of summers on this coast, with the Grand Bé behind.

The swim, a user’s guide

At low tide, everything comes together: deep water, platform in service, and Bon-Secours beach all around for the towels. On the rising tide, the sea returns, surrounds the basin, then submerges it: you then swim literally above the pool, a strange and very Saint-Malo sensation. Around high water the rim disappears: keep clear of it whenever swell is working, and find the basin again on the ebb, freshly refilled.

Two practical points: access is free, like the beach; and the basin is not permanently supervised. The bottom, slippery with seaweed near the steps, deserves a little care, and children a constant eye. In season, mind the flags of the beach first-aid post; in any season, the tide’s hour is checked against the official SHOM times.

Around the basin

Bon-Secours is a tidal crossroads: the Grand Bé causeway leaves from the same beach at low tide, the ramparts overlook the basin and give the best vantage point on the divers; the sun sets exactly on its axis, behind the islets. The classic programme for a summer evening: a swim in the pool, the Grand Bé loop if the tide window allows, sunset from the wall walk. The spot’s entry and exact position are on the interactive map.