Amazingly deadly beautiful.
Is it usual for you to get them?
The last time i was down in Nice we couldn't put a foot in the water as all the coasts in france were plagued with those not too friendly

Well "usually" is in Holland and mostly we have the sort which don't sting but which are fun to pick up with your hands and throw at your sisters... But now I'm spending a month in Denmark. And there are more of these bad guys than the other ones. People tell me here that when the wind blows from the bad direction you get a lot of them. People tend to go swimming with their t-shirts on.

That second pic is amazing ...

Pics borrowed from internet... today I still didn't get batteries for my camera but the monsters were coming drifting in in huge numbers where I swim several times a day. And these internet pictures are exactly what they look like. One of them had tentacles easily two metres long. Sort of beautiful.... They swim up and down. Come up to the surface, sunbath for a moment, then go down again. Hope they'll be there again tomorrow?

I should add, I'm swimming at a kind of special harbour-like swimming place; the idea is, that it is sheltered and immediately deep enough. And: most people swim naked. But I've decided that circumcision is for deserts, not sea shores.

A day later the little fellows were still in our swimming harbour, but seem to be dead. Don't know why. Poor things. They still sting just as badly though. Life must be tough when you're a jelly fish.

a shame they're dead. Pollution? Maybe they'll blame it on mobile phones ...

I think it's natural. They belong in deep water and things just aren't right for them close to the shore. Their tentacles get caught up around stones and other unusual objects in the water (like my ...) ... the temperature changes too fast... But on the other hand every year there is a new population explosion and they spread out on the currents, in search of new niches... That's life. That's how humans overrun the planet too.

true - and a nice philosophy