Le Floating

Le Floating is a relaxed French river adventure for beginners. Floating down a gentle river is a safe way to experience moving water and learn how to swim in clothes. After a briefing swimmers enter the water, hold on to each other and drift down the river. The trip ends in a quiet eddy where swimmers can practice rock climbing and outdoor swimming fully clothed.

Recommended Kit:

Robust shoes and socks, comfy sports clothes, tracksuit, nylon overall, buoyancy aid, canoeing helmet and gloves. Floating is often used by adventure centres as a safe introduction to outdoor activities. This involves lessons of swimming fully clothed in all the adventure kit.

Reader Comment: Floating in the Ardeche River in Southern France

by René from Paris, France

We arrived at the adventure centre in the afternoon. As part of the evening pool party we were all required to dress up in a full set of adventure kit and go into the pool to familiarise ourselves with swimming in clothes. I've never done this before.

Dressed in tee and shorts, jogging suit, rain pants and long cagoule, I jumped into the pool. This was an amazing experience. I felt like I could barely swim forward at first. After while I got used to it and even managed to swim underwater with a cagoule hood up.

In the morning we went down to the river. There was a quiet eddy where we went into the water to acclimatise. I now realised that we had to wear all these clothes in the water to stay warm. They felt better than a wetsuit.

We formed a long people chain and drifted down the river. This was great fun. At the end was another quiet eddy where we could relax and splash around. The adventure clothes kept us really warm, so I now always swim in clothes outdoors.