Paris will open its three bathing sites in the Seine from July 5

It's hard to imagine that in less than two months, here at the foot of the Simone-de-Beauvoir footbridge, opposite the Bibliothèque nationale de France, we'll be able to swim breaststroke or crawl lengths in the Seine. "Patience, we're beautifying your neighborhood," says a sign from the city of Paris on a construction site gate. For now, a green crane is positioned on a barge and giant steel tubes (dolphins, in maritime jargon) are planted in the river about ten meters from the quay. Yet it is right there, just below the Parc de Bercy, in the ^12th arrondissement, that one of the three swimming sites promised to Parisians as a "legacy" of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will open this summer. The practical details were presented on Wednesday, May 14, by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, following a steering committee meeting on the water quality of the Seine and the Marne, where two swimming areas will also be inaugurated this summer.

Free to access, the sites will be open to the public every day for the duration of the Paris Plage operation, from July 5 to August 31. The Bercy site is the largest. It will be able to accommodate up to 700 people at a time: 400 in the solarium and 300 in the swimming area, which consists of two pools measuring 67 and 35 meters long and 11 and 12 meters wide. Half as wide as an Olympic-sized pool to leave enough room for boats and barges to navigate. Pontoons will demarcate the swimming area, like pools moored to the quay. And a safety barrier attached to the dolphins will prevent a swimmer from being hit by a boat. The Bercy site will be the only one where swimming will be open continuously (from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.) every day of the week.

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