Its a question of life or death. This weekend, it will be forbidden to bathe on the coast of Gironde and Charente-Maritime due to dangerous weather phenomena, in particular "baïnes", strong currents which lead to drowning each year. So decided by the prefectures of the two departments.

In Gironde, where the prefecture had already advised against swimming on Wednesday after a series of drownings on the coast between Sunday and Tuesday, the conditions "will again be particularly dangerous due to the concordance of the following phenomena: swell and waves on board, strong currents and formation of baïnes, high air and water temperatures for the season, ”she explains in a press release.

The prefecture asks to "redouble caution and avoid swimming outside supervised bathing areas" in the municipalities of Lacanau, Hourtin, Carcans and Vendays-Montalivet, about fifty kilometers of coast.

Maximum risk on Saturday in New Aquitaine

In Charente-Maritime, swimming is not recommended "in the municipalities affected by the baïnes phenomenon", these seemingly innocuous water holes but whose currents can quickly lead offshore. The prefecture quotes, in a press release, those of Le-Grand-Village-Plage, Saint-Georges-d'Oléron and Saint-Trojan-les-Bains, on the island of Oléron, and La Tremblade, near Royan , as "particularly concerned".

According to the same source, Météo France "confirmed a maximum risk for baïnes on Saturday on the coast of New Aquitaine (5 on a scale of 5)".

From this summer, a baïnes alert system will be set up on the Aquitaine coast on the model of avalanches, according to an announcement dating from October from the delegate prefect for the defense and security of the south-west zone. When the danger is significant, an alert message will be broadcast in the media, trains or campsites.