Swimming pool "les Bains" in Bègles

 

Photo: Valérie Doulevant

 

 

A swimming pool evolutionary and thoughtful in Bègles; Baths showers in the last century…

This is the 4 December 1932 that the Bègles swimming pool and showers have been inaugurated. Michel Dané (born in 1939, today, Chairman of the Sports Commission and delegate adviser for sports life, at the town hall of Bègles, with Noel Mamère) remember : “I often came with my parents to wash on weekends. There was a line up to the street before we could get in. »This former railwayman, then creator of the Sports Department and Director of Sports, retired now, is the dean of the current béglaise municipal team. "I learned to swim in this pool there. Michel Angaud was one of the lifeguards. The basin had a wooden bottom and bronze verrines. The basin was equipped with a floor on jacks allowing to vary its height according to the use. For us, young people of the time, the pool represented a lot in terms of meetings. It was a real place of sharing and social regulation, its location in the city center allowed for social exchanges ... We came to see if the friends were there, we looked if we saw the girls ... Besides, in my time, in 1950, school classes also came. The pool had its swimming club and as the pool was small, the Beglais were known to be good in the turns ! »Says Michel Dané.

Construction of a summer pool and classification as Historic Monuments

In 1964, a second pool is built, this time, outside. The 18 December 1991, the swimming pool is classified in the additional inventory of historic monuments ( list annexed to that of historic monuments).

In 1996, for health and safety reasons, it had to be closed. Its restoration has been thought through for a long time. At the request of Noël Mamère, architect Patrick Bouchain, wanted to keep its stamp, not to destroy what characterized it, adding functionality and security (mandatory upgrading, piping to be changed, asbestos removal ...). "He wanted to use the old building as a backdrop for the new swimming pool. »Explains Armelle Merle, swimming pool director and assistant manager of the sports department.

It's in 2006 open the restored swimming pool, a new basin in service.

Last step, in 2006, an ecological and civic touch

The last renovation dates from 2003 at 2006, with searchable works and the site open to the public. "There was what we called" the house of the building site ". The curious could see the progress of the works, the workers ate there, conferences were organized there, meetings, host tables, site visits. »Says Armelle Merle.

In September 2006, the bet was held : the swimming pool de Bègles opened again. « 5000 people came to the inauguration. This time it was a revival : the building has kept traces of the past, the aged has not been totally erased, they have kept some defects due to the weather (one step less, a damaged wall…). The architect would have liked to 'keep the building in its original condition'. »

On its innovations : "The water that had been heated with coal, then fuel oil is now town gas and thanks to the use of solar panels. »Specifies the director, Armelle Merle.

The Baths of Begles today

The Baths are to this day a leisure complex, including a new swimming pool attached to the old building, baths (hammam, care and health area) in the old building. There is also a small brasserie in what used to be the lobby in the years 30 (essentially organic meal, Nature and Zucchini)

The two priorities of the current swimming pool are aimed at children and seniors. "This is not a competing pool, but complementary to those already existing around Bordeaux and Bordeaux. So no place for a club… ”

Playground for adults and children

A playground for children and adults, to the particular architecture, due to the fact that it is in the old preserved basin, with traces of ancient architecture, but who does not achieve the expected success. This space is however approved by Jeunesse et Sports, but the particular structure does not seem to attract crowds. Sliding, escalade, indoor trips are in the spotlight, with high tables allowing you to rest while sipping, view of the pool.

Its particularity also lies in the fact that the water is partly dechlorinated by plants and a new system to come.: the municipal swimming pool is in the process of equipping itself with a machine which makes it possible to recover the calories from the waste water leaving the basin. These calories are reinjected into the heating circuit of the new water in the basin and the toilets… (see SO you 15 November 2013). Project, called "The blue degrees hot water", unique in Gironde…

Valérie Doulevant