A Tiralo, an amphibious wheelchair equipped with two yellow floats, moved out toward the open water behind the row of swimmers. Elise Arnaud floated in the cool water, nestled in the hammock seat of the Tiralo. Her mother and stepfather swam beside her, enjoying the warm August day in Pornichet, a coastal town on France’s Atlantic waterfront, with other families around them. After swimming, the wheelchair was brought back to shore, where it could be rolled onto the dry sand. Elise then rested on her inflatable mattress.
The 22-year-old had contracted meningitis as a child, followed by a serious back operation, and remained “small in stature,” said her mother, Virginie Jéhanno. Still, “the Tiralo means we don’t have to carry her, it gives us a break. In Morbihan [in the western Brittany region], where we went for a week, we had to carry her a lot, on hiking trails, over dunes…”
Their golden tans showed that the family often visited Libraires Beach, just a few kilometers away from their hometown of Saint-Nazaire. There, they found Tiralo wheelchairs, a mat walkway to the sea, and adapted showers and toilets for persons with reduced mobility. They also found a gently sloping access ramp renovated in 2024 near four reserved parking spaces. “We arrive in the morning with a picnic because there are very few parking spots,” Jéhanno said.
‘Visitor numbers are increasing’
“I’ve been coming here for 10 years. I remember the old system of ‘the slope,’ when we used to call a police officer for help,” said Catherine, who did not wish to give her last name, as she pushed her 53-year-old son, Jean-Michel, in a wheelchair. She praised the “wonderful” facilities, though she pointed out a few areas for improvement. “The mat is fine in July, but in August, it shifts around a bit, so I have to roll backward. Some shaded sails would be nice, too, to protect us from the sun.”
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