Unpacking viral video of overcrowded ‘Paris pools’ amid scorching heat wave
The footage is partially old, dating back to at least 2023, and appears to have been shared to push anti-immigrant narratives
CLAIM
A video containing two clips edited together of a crowded pool with children, many of whom are not white, claims to show conditions in Paris’ public pools.
BACKGROUND
Amid Europe’s sweltering heat wave, the X account @RadioGenoa shared a video on July 2 containing two clips of a crowded pool with children — many of whom are not white. Alongside the footage it only wrote: “Pools in Paris”.
The footage was posted as southern, western and central Europe is baking in extremely high temperatures that have seen fatalities reported in France, Spain and Italy.
The post was pinned to the top of the account and seen more than 5.3 million times with over 8,400 shares, according to X’s metrics.
@RadioGenoa gives its location as Genova, in Liguria, but all its posts are written in English and the location of the user could not be verified. The account publishes almost exclusively anti-immigrant and racist content and is mostly focused on Europe.
The X account provided little information and made no direct claim that the footage was current, but given the weather conditions in Europe and the interest the footage generated, the ESN sought to verify what the footage actually showed.
METHOD
The video contains two clips — one of children crowded into a pool inside and another of an outdoor pool.
A screengrab from the first part was put through TinEye and returned no results. However, a Google Image search returned several results of the same clip dating back to at least 2023. A TikTok video of several pieces of footage edited together started with this same video and makes a reference to Aquaboulevard.
While other sections in that video did appear to be shot at Aquaboulevard in Paris, a search for photos on Google Maps from the water park confirmed this section was not.
A scroll through the comments under the video confirmed this, with a user saying the first part was shot at a pool in Departement 91 called Essonne, in the southern part of the Île-de-France region. Other users commented it was of a pool in Palaiseau, which is located in Essonne.
A search for public pools in Palaiseau led to the Aquatic Center La Vague and images on Google showed the same kind of tiles. The vertical TikTok video from 2023 also gave a longer view of the background revealing the same wooden cladding in the background.
A geotagged video at the same pool on Google Maps showed the outside pool which matched the one seen in the second part of the video that was shared by @RadioGenoa.
A reverse Google Image search of a screengrab of the outdoor pool in the video returned the earliest result from a post on X on July 2 by the user @PsyGuy007. The user posts in French and does not post any original video content. It is not their video and they also shared the clip by @RadioGenoa hours earlier. The ESN has not located the original version of the video and we cannot confirm if it is current or old.
At least two users asked X’s built-in AI assistant, Grok, if the footage really was from Paris. In both instances, Grok was not able to answer correctly — once suggesting the video showed a different pool and once saying that it was unlikely to show a pool in Paris.
A report by Le Parisien on July 2 said that 700 people had to be evacuated from Aquatic Center La Vague after a 6-year-old girl nearly drowned and needed to be resuscitated. A similar incident took place at the pool with two children in May, the report added. The report said the girl was found unconscious in the water surrounded by a large number of swimmers.
It also said that the pool faces large crowds amid the current heat wave.
All of the versions that we have found of either of these clips shared have been on social media accounts that publish anti-immigrant and racist content and none of it is original. The intention is to suggest that France has been inundated with immigrants from outside Europe.
Île-de-France has long been the most ethnically diverse area of France with four out of 10 immigrants living in France residing in the region. It also has a much higher proportion of people with at least one immigrant parent than found elsewhere in France. While immigrants can be from Europe, many also originate from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa.
It is not possible to speculate on the background of these children, given that the population in Paris and surrounding areas has long been the most ethnically diverse part of France.
RATING
The footage that has gone viral does originate from a public pool south of Paris. It is at least partially old with the first part showing the worst overcrowding found to date back to 2023 and maybe earlier.
The footage has been shared to suggest immigrants are ‘flooding’ Paris. There is no way of telling what the background of these children is given the ethnic diversity of Île-de-France.
SOURCES
BBC. (2025). Scorching European heatwave turns deadly in Spain, Italy and France. [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].
Diquattro, T. (2025). Près de 700 personnes évacuées de la piscine de Palaiseau après une nouvelle noyade d’enfant. [online] leparisien.fr. [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].
L’Institut Paris Region (2023). Descendants d’immigrés en Île-de-France : une mobilité sociale plus favorable qu’en province. [online] L’Institut Paris Region. [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Pools in Paris. [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: @grok is this really Paris? [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: @grok is this really a pool in Paris? [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Essonne : Dans une piscine, un coach impuissant face à des jeunes qui refusent d’obéir. [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].
TikTok. (2025). Available at: Aquaboulevard 2022 #aquaboulevard. [Accessed 3 Jul. 2025].