Almost 100,000 people will swim in the new swimming pools on the Seine this summer

Paris, August 27 - Almost 100,000 people bathed in the Seine River at the new Parisian swimming pools this summer, the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo said today, according to AFP. She also announced that two of the three pools will extend their operation until September.

"Almost 100,000 bathers have already enjoyed swimming in the Seine this year and, given this extraordinary success, I have decided to extend the opening of the Grenelle pool until September 7 and the Bercy pool until September 14," the mayor said on the Bluesky social network.

This will allow people to take a dip near the Eiffel Tower and in eastern Paris even after the planned closure on August 31. "This is great news for those who have made swimming in the Seine a summer tradition, and a last chance for those who have not yet had the opportunity to swim," Hidalgo added. A third swimming pool in central Paris will remain closed in September.

Officially, swimming in the river was banned in 1923 due to its dirty water, but according to media reports, people were still swimming in it until the early 1960s. Following Hidalgo's promise to clean up the river, athletes swam in the Seine last summer as part of the Summer Olympics. On July 5, the Paris authorities opened three swimming pools to the public.

Authorities checked the water quality every day and decided to close the pool on some days in July due to frequent rains that can cause the sewage system to overflow into the river. According to figures released by Paris City Hall in early August, 35,000 people visited the pool in its first month of operation alone.

Czech press agency | WT.24