An immaculate lawn, three comfortable deckchairs and a large rectangular pool of eight meters by four. Welcome to the garden of Sonia and her family. “It has always made me dream of having a swimming pool at home”, comments this socio-cultural facilitator. So, a few months ago, the forties and her husband jumped into the deep end. In October 2021, the diggers take over their land and build a swimming pool with a red brick wall around the terrace. Red bricks? Yes, Sonia and her family do not live in the south of France, but in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, in the North.
“Everybody said to us, ‘No, but you’re crazy, a swimming pool in the North? You’re never going to use it!'”, remembers Sonia. The spring heat wave and the heat pump in the basin proved them wrong. “We had the pool in April and since then we have been swimming every day”, welcomes this mother of three children. The family thus joins the three million French households to have an in-ground or above-ground swimming pool in their garden. A French passion that is gradually devouring the whole of France.
For several decades, France has been cultivating its exception in terms of swimming pools. “We are, by far, the first European market and the second in the world after the United States”, recalls Stéphane Figueroa, President of the Federation of Swimming Pool Professionals (FPP) and Managing Director of Fluidra France. And that’s not about to change:2021 was a historic year, with an increase in construction of around 30%!”adds the leader with a southern accent that betrays his origins, those of the historic heart of the French swimming pool market.
By digging into the data of the French cadastre, franceinfo recovered the precise number of inground pools in each municipality. And for good reason, any pool of more than 10 square meters must be declared to the General Directorate of Public Finance (DGFIP). In this file, nearly 1.5 million in-ground pools are referenced in this way. “We observe blue crowns around the big cities of the south of France, analyzes the journalist Jean-Laurent Cassely, author with Jérôme Fourquet of France before our eyes (Ed. Threshold). It is France which is doing well, which has a little means and which lives in a pavilion.
France’s champions of this lifestyle are found in Vaucluse and Var, where around 15% of all housing are equipped with an inground pool. This figure sometimes climbs much higher. In Roquefort-les-Pins (Alpes-Maritimes), the softwood forest has had to give way to a forest of swimming pools since the end of the last century. Today, the town of 7,000 inhabitants, known for its very favorable micro-climate, has no less than 2,000 swimming pools.
This swimming pool craze began in the 1990s in the region. At that time, this boom was carried by industrial flagships made in France. The first of these, Desjoyaux swimming pools, is today the world market leader, with no less than 13,000 pools built last year. “We have been the architects of the democratization of the swimming pool for more than twenty years”, welcomes the CEO, Jean-Louis Desjoyaux. Over the years, swimming pool prices have indeed melted to make way for new buyers. The share of pool owners among employees, workers and farmers has jumped ten points in four years, according to a study commissioned by the FPP.
“Our new target is the middle classes. We are all public now.”
Jean-Louis Desjoyaux, CEO of Desjoyaux swimming poolsat franceinfo
In reality, it is above all the diversification of the swimming pool market that has enabled it to become more democratic. “Unlike the barbecue, which has gradually gentrified with more and more expensive models, the swimming pool has rather gone back down in range, in particular with the rise of affordable above-ground swimming pools., analyzes journalist Jean-Laurent Cassely. This type of model allows you to afford a large pool for less than 10,000 euros, compared to at least double that for an in-ground pool. At the same time, the ideal of the swimming pool gradually became widespread. Everyone wants a piece of that dream.”
The swimming pool professionals then started their rush to the North. “The market is progressing enormously above Lyon and Bordeaux, as far as Brittany”, confirm it President of the Federation of Swimming Pool Professionals. Besides, Stephane Figueroa opened its last pool equipment distribution agency… in Lille. “You would have told me that ten years ago, I would have said to you: ‘But what do you want me to do in Lille? I would rather have settled in Nice. But now Lille is a very, very good market.”continues the CEO of Fluidra.
“Today, contrary to what one might think, there are more swimming pools in the center than in the south of France. The trend has truly reversed.”
Jean-Louis Desjoyaux, CEO of Desjoyaux swimming poolsat franceinfo
“In fifteen years, I have doubled my number of constructions”, confirms the manager of Nord Piscine et Spa, Vincent Bouffel. He adds : “And again, I could have done more. I only doubled because I prefer to have a small business and follow my construction sites closely.” The counter could even have soared in 2020 and 2021. “At the time of confinement, we had 40 requests a day, remembers the Northerner. We didn’t stop working, but we couldn’t process hundreds of requests.”
Throughout France, restrictions linked to Covid-19 have caused the private swimming pool market to explode. “We saw a big demand from people who had to give up on their holidays. They were absolutely looking for a water point”, recalls Jérôme Agisson, swimming pool specialist from Ile-de-France, observing the gaping hole dug in front of an opulent house in Varennes-Jarcy (Essonne). At the bottom, a concrete slab has already been poured and a first row of rubble stones form a rectangle of 7 meters by 3.5. One more pool to come in the area.
Beyond Covid-19, a deeper movement has caused the wave of private swimming pools to sweep across France: global warming. If pool professionals avoid pronouncing the word, everyone recognizes that the rise in temperatures plays in their favour. “It’s a godsend, recognizes Jean-Louis Desjoyaux. There is no longer this brake of cold or heat in France.
“In Lille, now we have the weather that there was in Rennes in the 1970s. And Strasbourg has the weather of Lyon. All that is favorable for us.”
Vincent Bouffel, swimming pool specialist in the Northat franceinfo
Equipped with large heat pumps and retractable roofs, swimming pools can conquer France from South to North without risking a cold snap. “With global warming, swimming pool France is expanding”, notes journalist Jean-Laurent Cassely. However, more than an individual solution to the climate crisis, the inground pool could well turn into the best enemy of the current disruptions.
To find out the carbon impact of a swimming pool, the developer Maël Thomas has created a calculator whose code is open to everyone. A 20 m2 swimming pool heated by a heat pump thus represents a carbon footprint of 250 kg of CO2, i.e. a round trip by plane between Paris and Marseille. “I try to give people orders of magnitude, explains the developer, who also works for the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe). And the impact of the swimming pool is not negligible.” As a reminder, each person should limit their carbon footprint to two tonnes of CO2 per year in order to comply with the Paris Agreement.
The explosion in the number of individual swimming pools is also putting pressure on water resources. “A swimming pool increases the annual water consumption of a family of four by approximately 10 to 15%”, says Nicolas Roche, professor at Aix-Marseille University and water specialist. An impact, again “not insignificant”according to the expert, but that must be put into perspective. “If you water your lawn regularly, it can be a lot more”he tempers.
As with air conditioning, owners of individual swimming pools are swimming between two waters. “We are in the midst of the paradox of the current transition period”, analyzes Jean-Laurent Cassely. Many people buy a swimming pool because individually it will allow them to better live with the warming; when collectively, it’s not going in the right direction”summarizes the journalist. “It’s not the best adaptation to climate change,” euphemised the CNRS researcher Florence Habets, specialist in water resources.
“The best adaptation to global warming is collective facilities, which are more water and energy efficient… And of course, the possibility of swimming in the natural environment, if it were not so polluted!”
Florence Habets, CNRS researcherat franceinfo
Despite these alerts, the individual swimming pool continues to gain a place in the lives of more and more French people. “The swimming pool comes to crown the way of life of suburban France, it is part of the ideal package”, analyzes Jean-Laurent Cassely. It is not Sonia and her family in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, who will say the opposite: “Now we can spend our month of July in the North. The weather is nice, we have less and less rain and the children play in the swimming pool all day.”