What is a supervised bathing area?
This is an area of the river monitored by qualified staff (a bathing supervisor with a BNSSA diploma or a lifeguard).
The lifeguard watches over the swimmers and ensures the safety rules are observed within the area delimited by two two-coloured flags or the line of buoys. This is the area where you may swim.
The lifeguard only supervises swimming on certain days at certain times.
As in a swimming pool, the presence of a lifeguard does not exempt you from your responsibility to watch over your children, especially if they cannot swim.
A fully-equipped emergency post (defibrillator, first aid kit, telephone etc.) allows first aid to be provided in the event of an accident, and special access is marked out or constructed for the emergency services.
In addition, toilets, rubbish bins, picnic tables and disabled access may be provided.
Everywhere else, outside these supervised zones and times, you are free to swim but under your own responsibility and at your own risk.
Meanings of flags:
Green flag = supervised bathing area with no apparent danger
Orange flag = supervised bathing area with limited or marked danger
Red flag = prohibited bathing area
The red (at the top) and yellow (at the bottom) flag marks out the supervised bathing area only during times when the emergency post is open.
If there are no flags at a beach, there is no supervision.
The 9 supervised beaches in the river basin:
Of the 26 beaches with regular water quality analyses, 9 sites are developed and supervised for swimmers (lifeguard, supervised bathing area, emergency post, emergency access):
the beach in Lalevade d’Ardèche (river Ardèche)
the beach in La Souche (river Lignon)
the beach in Balazuc (river Ardèche)
the beach in Salavas (river Ardèche)
the beach at the Pont d’Arc (river Ardèche)
the Sauze and Grain de Sel beaches in Saint Martin d’Ardèche (river Ardèche)
the Pont Cassé beach in Saint Just d’Ardèche (river Ardèche)
the beach on the lake in Villefort (river Altier)
This icon and a selection button on the home page of the ” Ardèche Inf’eau Plage ” website help you to identify these beaches.
You can find details of the days and times when a lifeguard is present on the beach info pages. This information is also displayed at each beach and at the town hall and is available from tourist offices.
If there are any differences between the information on the “Ardèche Inf’eau Plage” website and at the beach, check whether the lifeguard is actually present at the beach and see the information on the emergency post, including the flag colour.
A network of “public” sites:
The 10 beaches with facilities were chosen and developed with respect for the river.
Designed to form a network, these developments had two goals:
– to make the sites safer and more welcoming (water quality analysed regularly and always good, supervised bathing, emergency post, parking, rubbish pins, disabled access etc.);
– to guide the majority of visitors to public or organised sites in order to preserve wilder, more sensitive and often private locations.
Beaches with amenities in the Ardèche river basin: reconciling visitor numbers, safety and the preservation of fragile natural habitats
Conducted between 2010 and 2019, the construction and development work was sponsored by EPTB Ardèche, and the sites were then transferred back to the municipalities or municipal groupings that manage and maintain them on a day-to-day basis.
The plan is to extend this network of supervised public beaches in the coming years.