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The recent cold snap had most people huddling in their homes to stay warm and spending as little time as possible outside - but, for one man from the Gard, it came at the perfect time.

William Bonnet has spent months taking cold showers, and swimming in lakes, where the water has been close to freezing as he prepared for the fifth annual World Ice Swimming Championships, which were due to get under way in Estonia on Tuesday, March 6.

Mr Bonnet qualified for this year's competition in the Baltic country after swimming for 23 minutes in water at just 2C in Germany last year. His training for his Estonian adventure included regular dips in the lac du Bonheur in Camprieu, Lozère. At the end of January, the temperature in the lake, which is 1,000m above sea level, was a bone-chilling 0.2C.