by The river fund was opened again on Saturday morning in Paris and marked the first time since 1923 that bathers were able to break into the legendary waterway after years of cleanup.
A few dozen people of all ages arrived before the opening of the Bras Marie swimming zone from 8:00 a.m. (0600 GMT)-a one of three open in Paris in this summer and pulled up swimming caps and safety glasses when they prepared to immerse themselves and to celebrate the long-awaited return of swimming in the its.
“I thought it was cold freezing, but it’s actually great,” said Karine, 51, a nursing worker from southeast of Paris, and one of the first to jump into it.
The seasonal opening of the Seine for swimming is seen as an important legacy of the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, open swimmers and triathletes in their waters, which were specially cleaned for the event.
“It is a childhood dream when people swim,” said the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who visited the location in the historic center of the city near the Ile Saint-Louis.
“Take a look at how happy everyone is,” she said with a smile.
Parisians and visitors who want to cool this summer can venture the jump under the watchful eye of rescue swimmers in fluorescent yellow T-shirts at the three seaside resorts, including a stone that is from the Eiffel Tower from the Eiffel Tower.
The swimming zones are equipped with changing rooms, showers and furniture in the beach style and offer space for 150 to 300 people to relax, lay out their towels and relax from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Paris officials state that they have taken several measures to ensure that swimmers can safely enjoy the long -awaited reopening, including the daily test pollution tests and the implementation of a swimming test for bathers.
“The water quality is” exceptional, “said Marc Guillaume, the prefect for the Ile-de France region, which includes Paris.
“We monitor two bacteria, E. coli and enterococci, and on the one hand we are ten times below the threshold values and, on the other hand, more than 25 times,” he said.
However, officials recalled swimmers of potential dangers, including strong currents, boat traffic and an average depth of 3.5 meters.
“Seine remains a dangerous environment,” said local official Elise Lavielle early this week.
In order to mitigate this risk, life skills will evaluate the swimming skills of the visitors before they enable independent access, while a decree issued at the end of June introduced fines for people who swim outside the intended areas.
The promise to raise the swimming ban dates from 1988 when the then mayor of Paris and future President Jacques Chirac used for his reversal for the first time, about 65 years after the ban on practice in 1923.
– ‘more peaceful life’ – –
“One of my predecessors (Chirac), then mayor of Paris, dreamed of a his in whom everyone could swim,” wrote President Emmanuel Macron about X and described the move as a result of a “collective effort” and a moment of “pride” for France.
Before the Olympic Games, the authorities invested around 1.4 billion euros (1.6 billion US dollars) to improve the water quality of the SEIN.
Since then, the work that is carried out upstream has promised even better water quality – with a hook.
On rainy days, the Paris waste water system in the mid-19th century often overflows and leads to rain and waste water into the river.
Flags will inform bathers about the pollution levels in the water every day, and if it rains, the locations will probably close the day after, said Paris City, Pierre Rabadan.
However, swimmers are lucky this year, whereby the weather during the games is drier than the record button actor, which led to the cancellation of six of the eleven competitions on the river.
The opening takes place after the French capital had a large heat wave during the week, at which Paris recorded the highest alarm level of the weather agency during a European heat wave.
Hidalgo, which was weakened last year on the first swimming, said that cleaning the Seine for the Olympic Games was not the final goal, but part of a broader effort to adapt the city to climate change and to improve the quality of life.
“Heat waves will only increase,” said the mayor of Paris and added that the creation of safe swimming spaces will promote a “happy and undoubtedly more peaceful life with our fellow citizens”.
One of the swimmers on Saturday thanked the Seine.
“Thank you, Mrs. Hidalgo. It’s so cool,” the bather called out of the water.
The swimming points are accessible to the public free of charge until August 31.
Juc-Str-EKF/CW
