Pierre Gruneberg: I'd Like to Teach the World to Swim by Simon Heptinstall

He's taught some of the most rich and famous to swim... and now Pierre Gruneberg was going to get his biggest test – persuading ME to go near the water.

Europe's top instructor – whose list of successes includes Paul McCartney, Picasso, Robin Williams and David Frost – had a daunting reputation to keep afloat.

I was just a nervous Englishman put off by being thrown in at early age. My challenge was to learn to swim before my 40th birthday... in a few weeks time. For my first lesson with the swimming instructor to the stars all I Pierre needed was a salad bowl full of water on a table nowhere near the water.

"With this salad bowl I'll make all your fears disappear," explained the elderly Frenchman, who was wearing a huge straw hat and a towelling dressing gown. Hmmm. I was pretty skeptical. Why should this eccentric Frenchman succeed, where being thrown in the sea at an early age had failed? But Europe's most fashionable swimming instructor has been teaching the rich and famous to keep their heads above water for longer than I've been trying to learn. "I love teaching people," he beams. "I'd like to teach the world to swim."

He helped Aristotle Onassis, Charlie Chaplin and Shirley Bassey all conquer their fear of water. Would he succeed with me?

"You are afraid because you feel you can't breathe under water," explained Pierre. "You can't learn because you'll panic if your head goes under. People are astonished when I ask them to put their heads in a salad bowl but when I make you feel relaxed with your head under water you'll see what happens..."

Evidently at this point McCartney bubbled out a tuneful 'Yellow Submarine', Robin Williams made a couple of nervous wisecracks and David Frost was terrified to get his hair wet.

Like me, they were probably embarrassed to be sitting in a line of worried beginners with their heads in bowls. But Pierre, who is a mix of showbiz eccentric, religious guru and Maurice Chevalier, soon had us keeping our eyes open and breathing out normally under the surface of a salad bowl.

The second lesson took place in a jacuzzi – which by now seems just like a larger salad bowl. We repeated the same exercises and learned to float face down. It all seemed rather easy.

For my third lesson I was promoted to the proper swimming pool. I found I could dive to the bottom, float along the surface and then, hey presto, there I was swimming!

It seemed to happen by itself, without me even trying to be brave. I punched the air with triumph. Pierre beamed sympathetically. By the end of the lesson, however, I was crawling lengths, head bobbing rhythmically under the water and up again to snatch breathe.

Pierre's own swimming success story started in 1949 when he turned up as a jobless teenager at the door of the luxurious Grand Hotel Du Cap Ferrat on France's Cote D'Azur, having hitch-hiked from Paris.

He's been teaching the rich and famous to keep their heads above water ever since.

His list of successful pupils spans generations of jet-setters, including David Niven, Jean Cocteau, King Umberto of Italy, Jacques Tati, Somerset Maughan, Donald Campbell, Jerry Lewis, Johnny Halliday, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Jean Paul Belmondo, Isabelle Adjani and Uri Geller.

And thousands of ordinary non-swimmers like me have overcome their fears with Pierre's bowl, ranging from a 92-year-old man to a two-year-old baby.

The day I learnt I watched Vic, a middle-aged former RAF man from Dover go from a teeth-chattering nervous wreck into a confident swimmer helping Pierre to instruct the beginners. Housewife Eileen from St Albans had taken 2000 lessons previously and still couldn't swim. Pierre soon had her crawling lengths of the pool.

Pierre clearly isn't in it for the money. He drives a tatty Citroen 2CV and lives in a flat in a hotel. "I have enough money," he says, "All I want to do now is help people to learn to swim."

He has turned his technique into a religion – writing books, appearing on TV and at events all over the world promoting his salad bowl technique. He visits British hotels occasionally to give lessons. When I saw him, at the Runnymede Hotel near Windsor, he taught 250 people to swim in a week.

You can combine a stay at the luxurious Cote D'Azur hotel, which boasts a swanky Michelin-starred restaurant, with lessons from Pierre.

One bonus is you'll end up swimming in the hotel's spectacular heated salt-water pool – reputedly one of the best in the world – which is perched on a rocky promontory overlooking the Mediterranean. Unfortunately it's mainly for the very rich and famous – the hotel rates start from 550 Euros per room per night and rise to 2,600 Euros.

Contact: pierregruneberg.com