August 9th - Swimming in the rain, I'm swimming in the rain
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2022
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Swimming in the rain, I've just been swimming in the rain. Quebec City has created something special at the docks this summer: L’Oasis. This an Olympic-sized swimming pool in the port, where you bathe in the water of the St Lawrence River. It is quite the most exhilarating urban experience I have had in a long time. An entire dock has been filled with the essentials for a top-class swimming pool: boardwalks, proper lanes and a children’s area. It’s a little rudimentary, but the water is tested each day for cleanliness and the temperature is entirely agreeable. Let’s hope it becomes a summer regular – and that other cities pick up the idea.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder. |
| 0:08.0 | Still in Quebec City in Canada and what a place it has turned out to be. |
| 0:14.0 | I've been swimming in the rain. Yes, correct. Swimming in the rain. |
| 0:19.0 | This is the first summer, but the city of Quebec has done something really extraordinary. |
| 0:27.6 | At the Basin-Louise, which is basically a dock, you can imagine what it looks. |
| 0:34.6 | Looking across to what seems to be a grain silo and there's a bit of a marina |
| 0:40.8 | as well, they have put a whole swimming area. So effectively it's, you can imagine a fair |
| 0:48.7 | size ship pulling in here. But instead of a fair size ship, they put a whole set of boardwalks out they've got a 50 metre pool |
| 1:00.0 | just marked out with with lanes and so on i've been flying up and down there just beyond the |
| 1:08.0 | barrier which keeps the rest of the river away. |
| 1:11.6 | There's some cabin cruisers drifting past. |
| 1:14.6 | And it's the first year that they've done it. |
| 1:18.6 | It's called Loisis de Port de Quebec, the oasis of course of the port of Quebec. |
| 1:24.6 | They've got a limit of 300 swimmers today. I was in there, |
| 1:28.2 | well, I had a lane to myself, and I'd say there's probably just a few dozen, but that's partly |
| 1:34.5 | because it's raining. It's a fantastic rainy day opportunity here. You would be really surprised |
| 1:42.9 | at how warm it is. Bearing in mind, this is the St Lawrence River and it |
| 1:46.7 | kind of, it's carrying the water from the Great Lakes out to the Atlantic. You think, well, it'd be a bit |
| 1:52.7 | sort of cool. But no, it's typical swimming pool temperature. Absolutely gorgeous. And the best city beach I have seen. You'll be aware of the |
| 2:04.4 | concept of city beaches. So Paris plage, for example, they, for a number of summers, they've |
| 2:14.0 | actually got real sand and by the hundreds of tons and put it along the |
| 2:19.5 | sand and there's some swimming opportunities there but nothing quite as impressive as this |
... |
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