A teacher has been feeling the chill this week by taking his showers outdoors in the snow.

For Patrick Papougnot has been brrrrrringing his bar of soap into the garden and hosing himself down every day this winter.

And despite the dumping of snow caused by Storm Darcy since Sunday, Tuesday's mad-cap shower was filmed by the Walmer resident.

Bare chested and wearing a knitted hat Mr Papougnot, 57, introduced his antics to the camera and said: "Hello today: cold shower in the garden at minus 2 degrees."

The video, captioned '6.30am, Tuesday, 9th February' shows the garden hose being switched on and attached to a wood outbuilding.

Off go his flip flops and his bare feet pad over the white snow into the stream of water powered from the outdoor tap.

Breathless Mr Papougnot then takes off his hat and hangs it on bare twigs of a garden bush to soap up his head and face.

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After, with his hat firmly back on and the hose still running he encourages others to do it too, exclaiming: "Voila! That's the shower done for today.

"I hope that you might be doing the same. Try it. It's totally addictive. Fantastic!"

He told us the cold showers are not due to necessity or the trend of off-grid living - he has no shortage of hot water inside his Church Street home.

It started because the keen triathlete missed taking part in personal challenges.

He said: "With Covid you can't do a lot. I wanted a challenge, was looking around the garden and the hosepipe was there and I thought 'I'm going to have cold showers'."

For Mr Papougnot, a teacher of Northbourne Park School, it's all about the buzz - and he is proof that cold showers invigorate the body and mind.

It started on November 15 and encompassed the coldest and darkest of days.

He said: "At first it was really cold and was so hard."

He spoke of the pain when the water stings the skin at first but the 20 minute daily practice allows him to reconnect with nature and sets him up for a day's teaching.

"It's very weird because in the midwinter it's very dark. B ut now it's sun rise time. You've got the bird song you go in the shower when it is dark and the sky starts to change colour. It is very addictive. Now I like to have a cold shower."

The practice is known to give a rush of health benefits too, such as reduced stress levels, higher levels of alertness, more robust immune response, increased willpower and weight loss.

Readers might be forgiven for expecting he darts into a hot shower to warm up afterwards. On the contrary, he dresses in the warmth of his living room and fuels his body with warm Scottish oats before setting off to school.

This isn't the first time Mr Papougnot has made the news. In 2004 he became the third athlete in history to complete a London to Paris triathlon.

In 2010 he completed an amazing seven marathons in just seven working days and in 2019 he swam from Ramsgate to Deal to highlight the importance of the Goodwin Sands in a relay swim. .

Mr Papougnot is continuing his cold showers in the garden until Monday, March 15. Tuesday's was his 90th.

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