The divers of the national gendarmerie probed the lake of Saint-Cassien (Var) for long hours between Sunday and Monday.
The soldiers were looking for a 50-year-old man who disappeared while trying to rescue a friend, reports France Bleu Provence.
The fifty-something had jumped from his pedal boat to rescue a woman in her twenties, victim of an early drowning.
But he never resurfaced and his body was finally drafted on Monday.
Coworkers
An autopsy should be performed but the trail of hydrocution is most likely, said the radio.
In total, around ten divers from Issambres, Lavandou and Martigues were mobilized to find the man from Nice.
The latter worked in the same restaurant as the young woman in distress in the lake.
They had spent Sunday in the Var, with other colleagues.
The young adult has managed to grab hold of her friend's pedal boat.
She was taken care of by the emergency services and evacuated for examinations to the Center hospitalier intercommunal de Fréjus-Saint-Raphaël.
Miscellaneous
Var: A German tourist drowned on the private beach of a campsite in Grimaud
Miscellaneous
Var: A false maneuver would have resulted in the car of the five young people drowned in the lake of Dramont
Drowning
Accident