Assessing the quality of swimming water is an obligation. A European directive governs the measures to be taken. The regional health agencies take care of it throughout the territory and collect the results on an official site. By consulting these figures, Le Figaro has identified the quality of more than 1,800 beaches in mainland France located on the territory of 583 seaside towns.
Health agencies are looking for two pathogenic bacteria: Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci. Depending on the higher or lower concentration of these germs, the water quality of each beach is classified as excellent, good, sufficient or insufficient.
The vast majority of French beaches offer good quality water. However, there are two parts of the coastline where no beach is classified as “insufficient quality”. This is the part of the Mediterranean coast located in Occitanie, and the Atlantic coast, from the south of the Gironde estuary to Spain. This represents a large coastal strip where you can dive without fear.
In Corsica, the bathing waters are generally good or excellent, except for the Pont du Liamone beach, whose water quality is insufficient.
We can mention Ajaccio, Agde, Narbonne among the cities to be favored.
Elsewhere, there are beaches to avoid. Thus, in the Mediterranean, the South-Paca region sees beaches whose water quality is considered insufficient. They are located between Marseille and Bandol, and west of Nice at Le Figaro point. Three of the 23 beaches of Antibes are concerned, in particular Les Ondes and La Gravette.
In New Aquitaine, the department of Charente-Maritime is a bad student. It is only on this coast that there are bathing waters of insufficient quality. These beaches are often found at the mouths of rivers or rivers, such as Port-des-Barques, for the Charente, or Vergnes beach, in the Gironde estuary, but the northern beach of Fouras is also concerned. But the waters of the different islands (Ré, Oléron and Aix) are of good quality. Further down, the beaches of Biarritz and Hossegor obtain the maximum score.
Further up, in Brittany and Pays de la Loire, the Côtes-d’Armor department is the worst student in France. It includes seven of the ten bathing spots with water of insufficient quality, and six are found in the bay of Saint-Brieuc, which is regularly plagued by the invasion of green algae. But in Crozon and Quiberon, the beaches get top marks, and Concarneau comes close.
Finally, Normandy and Hauts-de-France have the lowest share of excellent quality beaches. However, there are no beaches with poor water quality in Hauts-de-France. Conversely, in Normandy, it is the highest rate in France. But this only represents four beaches out of 150.
Planet.fr offers you in pictures a selection of ten French towns where the quality of water and beaches is the best.
