Canoes, 5 Year Old, What's the deal?

Kent - I'm pretty sure it is a French rule that the companies must follow to be able to buy insurance - due to the uniformity of the rules from company to company (in the Dordogne, Loire, and Pont du Gard). I'm mainly wondering how seriously everyone takes the rules.

Never mind the age issue, Can your child swim 25 meters?

Yes she can.

Birth certificate, probably not since you have a passport with her birth date. The French take the ability to swim to save yourself very seriously. It's part of the curriculum in elementary and middle school. Kids are taken to a pool for lessons and earn grades. This would correspond to the age six requirement.

I have no idea if this is enforced carefully generally but in the past I have seen children obviously not 6 years old in canoes on the Dordogne. Of course everyone should be wearing a life vest. If it were me I would just walk up and rent a canoe and see what happens.

If a company has a rule, I would respect it. They may have certain rules due to insurance or legal rules you don't know about. You can certainly ask at the time of booking if a child who can swim 25 meters and is within months of being 6 can go or not. If not, accept that gracefully. We can't presume that other countries or businesses will change or ignore regulations for us. You might be able to rent a larger boat and carry along a 5 1/2 year old as it would be deemed safer or take a river cruise. They will check the child's age on her passport. Water safety is a huge deal in France. I doubt if a company would ignore safety laws and rules. If something went wrong and your child drowned, they would lose their insurance and likely their license to run the business and whoever did the ignoring could go to jail for endangering a child. Just ask yourself, is bending safety rules worth your child's life?

The risk of a child in a lifevest in a canoe on the Dordogne with his or her parents who can swim and are in lifevests, in the canoe is about as close to zero as it is possible to give. It is absurd to consider this 'putting your child's life at risk.'

Thanks everyone. Especially for the perspectives on Frances views on water safety. I have the information I need.

Matt

The answer to this turns out to be (1) the minimum age is 5 years, (2) nobody at the canoe company cares and (3) at the current water level the risk was as close to zero as possible. We had a great time.

Thanks for the update, Matt.

I'm glad that your gang had a great time.

Doesn't it bother you that nobody at the canoe company cares? Wouldn't you want them to be safety conscious?

The people in the canoe company having common sense know that a child in a life vest with two parents in life vests on the Dordogne is not at risk.