Swimming in the Seine in Paris will open on July 5

Who's jumping in? Starting July 5, Parisians will be able to try their hand at replicating the aquatic exploits of their mayor and Olympic triathlon athletes thanks to the creation of three free swimming spots in the Seine , announced this Wednesday, May 14, by the prefect of the Île-de-France region. A first in a century.

This summer launch will take place at 8 a.m., on the edge of the Marie arm, opposite the Île Saint-Louis: the very place where Mayor Anne Hidalgo dived on July 17, 2024, alongside the head of the Olympic Games, Tony Estanguet . " It was an extraordinary moment , but swimming for the Games was not an end in itself," Anne Hidalgo commented this Wednesday during a press conference . Making the Seine swimmable is first and foremost a response to an objective of adapting to climate change but also of quality of life ," the socialist elected official emphasized.

Volunteers will also be able to take a dip at the Grenelle Arm (to the west) opposite the Île aux Cygnes, not far from the Eiffel Tower, and at Bercy, to the east. Swimming will be supervised and monitored, said Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sports.

As on the beaches, a system of flags - green, yellow and red - will allow the flow of the Seine and the quality of the water to be known, which was unfit for swimming during part of the Olympic Games due to failure to comply with bacteriological standards, due to heavy rain. Checks will be carried out daily, and swimming may be suspended in the event of bad weather, warned the prefect of the Paris region, Marc Guillaume.

The state representative in the Paris region said he was " even more optimistic" about water quality than last summer, given the major decontamination work carried out on the river. " Since this summer, 2,000 new connections to the sewerage networks have been made. We have decontaminated the Seine to 80 % of what was expected. For the Olympic Games, we needed to decontaminate two-thirds to reach standards compatible with swimming ," the prefect explained.

The city expects to welcome between 150 and 300 people at once to the three sites, which will close at the end of August. In addition, four locations will open on the Marne River, where swimming has been prohibited since 1970. This includes the historic one at Joinville-le-Pont. The first dives will be possible there as early as the end of June.