The sun is barely rising on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. A few passers-by run, walk or walk their dogs. And on the pebbles, Yossef gets dressed. Goosebumps on her skin and water drops in her hair. The 18-year-old has just come out of the Mediterranean. “I do this every other day around 7 a.m., when it starts to get light,” he says smiling.
Without any particular goal, this student ends his morning sports ritual with ten minutes of swimming after spending twenty minutes on the treadmill of a gym near Bella Nissa beach. A little further, facing the Negresco, while the sun is now out, Mimi, 29, returns to her briefcase. This Englishwoman, originally from Oxford used to swim in the river so the temperature of the water does not scare her. “Since I arrived here, that is to say, two months ago, I come almost every day. I try to come at the same time as the sunrise. It relaxes me and the landscape is simply magnificent. »
“Great energy for the day”
On the beach side of the Hôtel Amour, Rocio exclaims while drying himself off: “People think I’m crazy when I tell them that I’ve been swimming every day for twenty years”. Dressed in a bathrobe and flip-flops, this 53-year-old woman lives “nearby” and goes to the water “for thirty minutes in winter and one hour in summer”. She continues: “I’m like in a trance, I don’t think of anything. I feel all the sensations, that of water, that of salt. It’s the best moment of my day. »
If she goes swimming so early, “before 8 am”, it’s because she works afterwards but also “to be alone”. A few minutes after his departure, a whole group lays down their towel. “It’s better not to swim alone,” says Christine, who started taking the plunge five years ago. Beside her, Barbara and Julia put on their bathing caps. This is the only protection they put on before entering the sea, except for “a little coconut oil so as not to dry out the skin”. “At the beginning, it’s cold,” they admit. Then the body gets used to it. It is good for maintaining it and for health. It gives great energy for the day! “. According to them, you should not stay too long because you risk “taking the whole day to warm up”.