A genuine question...

[Solwaybuggier]

I’ve been meaning to try to find this out for a while, and am sat on a site in the Auvergne wondering. A large number of sites in France with pools have signs saying swimming for men in “les shorts” is strictement interdict; it sometimes adds that it’s for reasons of hygiene, or something similar. Often this is only enforced in municipal sites or pools, and I seem to think it’s part of national regulations of some sort.

But I’ve always wondered how trunks are deemed less hygienic than budgie-smugglers. If it’s to do with amount of material, surely women’s swimming costumes have more? I guess at a pinch I could understand that long surf shorts might present a safety issue. If someone went in a pool with ordinary shorts they’d been wearing to dig the garden, say, that may explain it, but you could then simply say swimwear must be worn.

Maybe one of the French residents on here might have an explanation?

And it’s not just France - some pools in Spain and Germany insist on you wearing a swimming cap. Which is fine until I reflect that I’ve got little or no hair on my head, while my chest and back are covered in it! They can make whatever rules they want, of course, but I’m just trying to understand the logic.

 

[sueandjohn]

Absolutely no logic

My son and his family were on a “Speedo’s and hat “ site but they let them swim in shorts because “it’s not busy”

So as I said Absolutely no logic

 

[Manic]

Maybe it could be un-hygienic because they think people could wear swim shorts all day and not budgie smugglers

 

[olley]

Maybe it could be un-hygienic because they think people could wear swim shorts all day and not budgie smugglers

That's the reason I was given, my shorts that I am wearing now are actually swimming shorts that I wear all day.

 

[Mousy]

I think the logic is all down to hygiene...

You could easily spend the day in board shorts and then get in the pool still wearing said dusty/ dirty shorts.

You are unlikely (unless very odd) to enjoy walking around in swimming trunks.

We call them Germans...the very tight trunks and keep a pair in the van for those eventualities.

We recently went back packing around Vietnam for 6 weeks with our son and he took the piss of them..until one day he tried them out of desperation and liked them so much (fast drying) that he borrowed them for the next 2 months in Thailand. Apparently both them and he were a hit with the ladies! But that could be because he’s 6’6” and 22 lol.

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[Solwaybuggier]

I think the logic is all down to hygiene...

You could easily spend the day in board shorts and then get in the pool still wearing said dusty/ dirty shorts.

You are unlikely (unless very odd) to enjoy walking around in swimming trunks.

I can see that just might work as an explanation for a site pool in summer, particularly by a beach - but in my experience the places that are really strict on it are municipal pools, where that’s surely very unlikely to apply? And there’s plenty of women in beach sites who seem to live in bikinis.

 

[pappajohn]

Ridiculous..... You could still pee in the pool if you were wearing your best dress suit.
It's nitpicking and nowt to do with hygiene.

 

[Southdowners]

But I’ve always wondered how trunks are deemed less hygienic than budgie-smugglers. If it’s to do with amount of material, surely women’s swimming costumes have more? I guess at a pinch I could understand that long surf shorts might present a safety issue. If someone went in a pool with ordinary shorts they’d been wearing to dig the garden, say, that may explain it, but you could then simply say swimwear must be worn.

It's to contain pubic hair. Plays havoc with the filtration system!

 

[scotzsue]

We were told it was to conserve water as shorts take too much out of the pool

 

[Parrot Face]

You slip trunks on then take them off after swim. Some men live in shorts for days, gather loads of skiddies and piss stains then jump in pool...apparently.

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[Figaro]

Or rule drawn up by gay life guards

 

[Lenny HB]

Also particularly for sites near beaches, people shorts can carry sand into the pool which brings up the filters. It's not a site regulation it is the law.
Italy and Ireland also require caps in the pool.

 

[Solwaybuggier]

Also particularly for sites near beaches, people shorts can carry sand into the pool which brings up the filters. It's not a site regulation it is the law.
Italy and Ireland also require caps in the pool.

Still doesn’t explain it, though - I recognise it’s the law, but why legislate for all pools on the basis of sand potentially clogging filters in a minority of campsite pools?

I appreciate people have come up with a range of explanations, but to my mind nothing that makes sense logically as legislation.

 

[mitzimad]

I think the logic is all down to hygiene...

You could easily spend the day in board shorts and then get in the pool still wearing said dusty/ dirty shorts.

You are unlikely (unless very odd) to enjoy walking around in swimming trunks.

We call them Germans...the very tight trunks and keep a pair in the van for those eventualities.

We recently went back packing around Vietnam for 6 weeks with our son and he took the piss of them..until one day he tried them out of desperation and liked them so much (fast drying) that he borrowed them for the next 2 months in Thailand. Apparently both them and he were a hit with the ladies! But that could be because he’s 6’6” and 22 lol.

for my sons stag do the got him a pair of luminous pink skimpy speedos like your son he looked liked adonis in them

 

[Clarky]

I understood that it’s a very old law that was passed to stop quarry workers taking a cooling dip in the municipal fountain on their way home from work in their very dirty and dusty work trousers.
To stop a minor local problem a national law was passed.

Might well be a load of rollicks, but in France who knows.

Richard.

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[JJ]

If any elderly, overweight, snow white fleshed Funster even approaches my super new "pool" wearing budgie smugglers, he will be asked to leave QMJ immediately.


JJ

 

[Solwaybuggier]

I understood that it’s a very old law that was passed to stop quarry workers taking a cooling dip in the municipal fountain on their way home from work in their very dirty and dusty work trousers.
To stop a minor local problem a national law was passed.

Might well be a load of rollicks, but in France who knows.

Richard.

I guess that does sound plausible - even if it doesn’t really explain why there are so many notices emphasising it.

Oh well, just the swimming cap conundrum to solve now!

 

[nicholsong]

Also particularly for sites near beaches, people shorts can carry sand into the pool which brings up the filters. It's not a site regulation it is the law.
Italy and Ireland also require caps in the pool.

I am male so could not fit a cap, nor a coil.