Beach days

How our Russian-speaking beach meetups work

A beach day is the easiest meetup we have. Nobody books a venue, works out how much meat to buy or collects money: someone posts a date and a pin in the chat, the rest reply “count me in” and turn up whenever they can. All six were free, and food is potluck - watermelons, fruit, salads, home-made pies. The folding table deserves a line of its own: someone asked for one in the chat before almost every trip.

People come as families, with children from five to sixteen, and bring friends along, French speakers among them. The beaches we pick are long and busy, so we learned the main rule the hard way: when you arrive, post in the chat and someone will come and find you. Once a member made it all the way to the beach and never found us on the sand.

22 June 2025: the first big beach day

We came up with the first beach day three weeks after the BBQ camping weekend where the community began. The spot was Plage du Couchant on the coast near Montpellier, meeting in the car park at 10:00-10:30. The programme grew in the chat as we went: a run along the sea (1 km and 5 km were promised, it ended up as 6), yoga on the sand led by a trainer from the community, a sadhu nail board, two paddleboards, a picnic and beach games. We bought a speaker and microphones specially for the day, and the karaoke kept going until gone ten at night. About forty people came. It was a scorcher, so the chat spent the whole day reminding everyone to wear a hat.

July 2025: La Grande-Motte becomes our beach

On 6 July we were back on Plage du Couchant in La Grande-Motte, from 2 pm until sunset. The choice was deliberate: the beach is huge, and the free car park sits right where the sand begins. Anyone without a car got picked up at the tram stop. Around twenty of us swam, went out on paddleboards, sang karaoke and danced on the sand, and fitted in a backing-vocal rehearsal for the karaoke night in a bar four days later. A few newcomers from the chat came too.

By 27 July nobody was organising anything. At 22:46 the night before, an ordinary member wrote “Who’s up for the beach tomorrow??”, the whole chat settled on 12:00, and by midday the group was on the sand. Two paddleboards, karaoke, eight photos in the chat. Nobody counted heads, but two messages summed the day up: “Shall we do the beach again this week?” and “We need to buy a table”.

19 January 2026: an Epiphany swim by the Carnon lighthouse

We went into the winter sea on Epiphany, which fell on a Monday. The meeting point was Carnon beach by the Feu de la jetée Est lighthouse, at 14:00. The forecast said +10 and cloudy, and the sea was rough that day. Plenty of people stayed at home, but those who came went in properly, then warmed up on the shore with hot tea and biscuits. One member with winter-swimming experience had warned the chat about the key difference in advance: you don’t plunge into an ice hole here, you wade a long way through cold shallows before it gets deep.

28 June 2026: opening the season at Carnon

We opened the 2026 season in the evening. The spot was picked by a poll with four options: two lakes near Montpellier, Plage du Couchant and Carnon. Carnon won: the town beach by the lighthouse is easier to reach by public transport and has a sports area with volleyball nets. Because of the heat the meeting time moved from the morning to 17:30-18:00, and the day turned into a shared dinner at sunset: a home-made quiche, watermelon, a speaker and volleyball. Fifteen to twenty people came, including a French-speaking guest.

11 October 2026: closing the season

The autumn picnic at Carnon drew 35-40 people. The table was potluck, and someone baked pies. Children flew kites, one member spent the whole day fishing from the rocks, and the bravest went for a swim in mid-October. Once it got dark the guitars came out, and for an hour and a half to two hours we sang songs in Russian and Ukrainian, then moved on to karaoke from a phone and dancing. We stayed on the beach until eight or nine in the evening and spent half an hour hunting for someone’s car keys as a group. They turned up the next day in the lining of a bag.

Where we meet

• Plage du Couchant, La Grande-Motte - a big beach with a free car park right by the entrance and enough room for karaoke. The downside: it is easy to lose each other on such a long stretch of sand, so keep an eye on the chat.
• Carnon beach (commune of Mauguio), by the lighthouse - about ten kilometres from Montpellier, easier to get to without a car, with volleyball nets. It is smaller than the beach at La Grande-Motte.

How to join the next beach day

New beach meetups are announced in the chat, usually a day or two ahead: the date, a pin on the map, the time and what to bring. Pack a towel, water, a hat and sun cream, plus something for the shared table; a folding table and a ball if you have them. There is no sign-up - just reply in the chat to say you’re coming. In summer 2025 we went to the beach every two or three weeks.

Want to run a meetup of your own? Let’s organise it together.