Espace Sportif Pailleron

This review only covers the Swimming Pool.

Reopened in 2006 after a complete overhaul, modernisation and several additions, Piscine Pailleron is now a modern pool within a Sports-center, the Espace sportif Pailleron. Pailleron is a showcase what the City of Paris could do with Pools like Piscine Pontoise or Piscine Château-Landon. Modernisation while also conserving the charme of the old Pool-buildings.

The old Pool-hall with the 33x15 Meter Basin for swimming has been modernized with a great Glass-roof. It´s a real joy to swim there, just looking at the building.
In Summer there is also an area outside to soak in some sun.
There are also three other pools, one for water-jet massages and one for small children and another 25 Meter (2 Meter maximal depth) basin for everything in between. There are also supposed to be another 2 Basins, but there is some construction going on with those at the moment. Lockers are money-less (you pick a code), cleanliness was alright when I was there and the showers are separated for men and women (with signs not to get naked). Small negative point here - there were too few showers for such a big pool.

Maintenance-wise you can see a couple of negative things if you look closely; like white-floor tiles that are getting brown-ish or some pieces of wood decor that should be replaced/refurbished - but nothing major was to be seen (there are renovations at the Moment on two basins and a part of the dressing-area). It has been almost 10 years since the reopening - and it does show here and there.

Coming back to the main Pool, the "historical basin"; Swimming Lanes are usually 2,5 Meters in width (FINA Standart), at this pool the lanes for certain swimming-speeds are well under 2 Meters in width. My arms span 1,95 and I was able to touch both lane dividers at the same time, so I recon the lanes are 1,90 Meters in width. So, If you are tall and want to swim breaststroke in this pool - you´re gonna have a hard time doing that. But the width of the lanes also makes it harder to deal with oncoming traffic for everyone. You can of course avoid these problems if you swim in the big Lanes on the sides, reserved for slow swimmers.

But still, on balance I quite enjoyed going to the Pool at Espace sportif Pailleron.

With three pools, one of them Olympic size and two others heated and child-friendly, this is clearly the best spot to swim if you live in northern Paris. (There's also an ice-skating ring, café and workout area but none have been tested by me, so this review concerns the pool activities only).

Despite the largess and sophistication of the space, there are some serious technical and service issues at this establishment. For one, the staff is just about as friendly and knowledgeable as a plank of wood. When I called to find out whether my toddler could wear bathing "shorts" instead of a speedo since that's all I had for him, they said, "bien sur" (of course) on the phone.

Fast forward ahead, after many parenting pirouettes to get said kid to the pool and then undressed, changed, showered, suited up with wings, and happily swimming around, after only 10 minutes in the pool one of the guards comes up to me and tells me that my kid needs a different swimsuit, and that the one he's wearing isn't allowed. I tell them that I called specifically to ask and was told it was fine, he said, no it wasn't and that they sold baby diapers and speedos for kids at the front desk and that if we wanted to stay we'd have to change him pronto.

Without the energy to back track, reverse and do it all over again while soaking wet, we left the pool. I complained at the exit and they gave me two free tickets to come back. A nice gesture, but one that I'll probably never take up. Too much of a hassle to trek there considering the pool by me has super friendly service and a nice size kiddie pool.