Victor Roth is a South Seas kind of guy

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It's summer in Paris and time for some sun. Many Parisiens desert the city for the Riviera or Atlantic coast. Certainly that's the preoccupation of the Curator in Hubris. You don't think of Paris as a place for swimmers - those prickly, impatient exemplars of fashion donning their lycra trunks for a lazy dip just doesn't seem to fit and yet this summer a new swimming place on the canal at La Villette is having to turn away eager bathers.

Temporary pontoons have been set up over the water and lifeguards are in place. Paris authorities are now confident the water at La Villette is clean enough to swim in and there are plans to open spots on the Seine to swimmers.

Paris Plages Festival 2009
It's all part of an annual summer festival, Paris Plages (beaches) when Parisiens take their deck chairs and umbrellas down to the embankment beside the Seine and sunbathe. The city also trucks in some sand and creates narrow temporary beaches.

Here in the land down under things are a little different, especially on Sydney Harbour where many a sandstone cliff ends in a strip of sand where people swim nearly all year round.

Camp Cove, Watsons Bay
Clifton Gardens on the north shore of Sydney Harbour
Nielsen Park near the Gap, Watsons Bay

I can't see Victor Roth at Paris Plages but I have been thinking about the possibilities of this at a real beach.
He's definitely the South Seas type.


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