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By Christian Fraser -
From the shore, they look like two keen swimmers.
Most days, Philippe Croizon and Arnaud Chassery are ploughing the waters of their local boating lake, training for their next big challenge.
But beneath the waterline, they are very different. Philippe has no arms and no legs.
Seventeen years ago, while adjusting a television aerial on a roof, the former steel worker was given an electric shock by an overhead power line.
An electric charge of 20,000 volts fused him to the metal ladder on which he was standing.
He would have been killed instantly - but another thunderous charge snapped him back to life. By the time help arrived, he was so grievously burned that both his arms and his legs had to be removed.
"When they amputated my last limb, the left leg, I wanted to die," he said. "I was so depressed, as low as you can get. But you have to make a decision - and I chose to live."
He says he was inspired to swim while in hospital. He saw a documentary on television about an Englishwoman who had swum the English Channel earlier that year.
"Wow, I thought. Why can't I do that? Why can't I swim the Channel? I don't know why but it became an obsession," said Philippe.
Fourteen years later, the 43-year-old became the first limbless man to cross the 34km (21-mile) Channel between France and England - a feat that has only been achieved by some 900 other, able-bodied, swimmers.
He crossed from Folkestone to Cap Gris Nez in 13 hours, 23 minutes - well ahead of his 20-hour target.
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