EDF Swimming Pool

Night is falling, night is falling and is witnessing the twilight of a swimming pool : a pool set up in the middle of the 20th Century.

In 1942, the German headquarters live in the West of Paris and have a huge hole dug up for its soldiers, and have it filled up with water.

At the historical liberation of Paris, EDF (Electricité de France, the French Electricity Company) takes over the land and sets up a tennis-aimed recreational area for its staff.

It was the park’s golden era. EDF buses leaving from la Porte de Saint-Cloud (Ouest of Paris) dropped off hundreds of workers and their families each week end. The club tallied up to 5 000 members. The swimming hole was extended, and was consolidated with cement, the water thus becoming clearer and more inviting. Children were learning how to swim whilst their parents were discovering the joys of sunbathing.

And the pool was tiled in 1977.

Since then it has hardly changed, but year after year, the pipes started failing, and harsh winter temperatures damaged the tiles, and the water heater started running out of breath…

In the nineties, the new generations started deserting the site in favor of other activities, and the atmosphere declined.

Knockout blow in 2011 when EDF decided to put the land up for sale. The photo was taken a few days before this date.

The swimmers have left, the pool seems asleep,
It was unique
Really unique

It will now be filled up, asphyxiated, to make room for an extra tennis court.
A tennis court amongst hundreds more....

PS : thanks to Yves Ledémélé which appears on the panorama and who wrote this caption and to Anne Langlois for the translation...

---

---

Europe / France

Lat: 48° 52' 3.67" N
Long: 2° 9' 33.51" E

Elevation: 50

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Unknown / Undeclared.

Taken with a Nikon D600 + Nikkor 16 mm DX AF Fisheye mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 MKI head. One row of six shots + zenith/nadir. Optimized with Photoshop/Camera Raw, stitched with PTGui and KRPano Tools.