^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

France: Flags on beaches

Beach watching system
Bathing condition flags
Windsurfing flag

See also:

Beach watching system

French beaches usually have a pole to hoist a bathing condition flag. I do not know if there is some law or regulation prescribing such an hoisting. I guess there are, since several beaches have an official first-aid post, whose members are responsible of hoisting the relevant flag. Those posts are managed by members of the CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité), a corps of mobile police forces created in 1945 and mostly famous for repression of demonstrations and crowd movements. The first-aid branches of CRS (they also serve in mountain first-aid) have a better reputation than those seen in the streets.
The CRS members serving on the beaches have police power and are allowed to forbid access to the sea when necessary, and reinforce bathing and yachting rules. They pay special attention to the respect of the areas dedicated to bathing, windsurfing, yachting, and motorboating, respectively. Most of their activity is first-aid to people who have any kind of problems (immersion syncope, sunstroke, jellyfish and weever stings, pickpocket attacks, but also lighter problems such as children who lost their parents in the crowd, adults who lost their car keys in the sand or got the car stuck in the sand etc.)

The main difference with the flag Spanish system is that the flags seem to be always triangular in France. Their meaning is also slightly different because a notion of watching is added.

No flag means that bathing is not watched. Beaches were bathing is never watched do not have a pole but a shield explicitely stating their status (Baignade non surveillée).

Ivan Sache, 28 October 2001