A bath of youth for the Seine

Just a century ago, at the start of the summer of 1925, more than 900,000 people crowded along the banks of the Seine to follow the traditional "swimming across Paris" and cheer on the young Ernestine Lebrun, who had come from Tourcoing to win first prize. Triumphant selfies were not yet the norm, nor were unicorn-shaped buoys, and yet "numerous tanned bodies with vigorous and supple muscles" were about to launch themselves into the river which "symbolizes all the grace and finesse of our capital," marveled Le Petit Parisien.

No one could have imagined then that swimming in the Seine would soon be banned and that washerwomen would no longer dare to immerse their laundry in it. One hundred years later, and three decades after Jacques Chirac's broken promise, swimming in the Seine will finally become a reality again starting this Saturday. We are still far from a popular swim across Paris, since this return is limited to three secure and supervised sites, after