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4h ago

Seine Opens to Paris Swimmers After Century-Long Ban

This reopening completes the Olympic-driven cleanup by instituting daily testing alongside safety protocols that manage variable water quality until August 31

A view of one of the three Seine swimming pools, Thursday, July 3, 2025 which will open during the 'Paris Plages' event from July 5 to Aug. 31 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
People swim in the River Seine at the Bras Marie site, opened to swimmers marking the first public bathing session in the capital's historic waterway, in Paris, France, July 5, 2025. REUTERS/Abdul Saboor
PARIS, FRANCE - JULY 5: Members of the public swim at the Baignade de Grenelle bathing site on its opening day on July 5, 2025 in Paris, France. Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo is visiting three bathing sites as the city launches its inaugural season of public swimming in the River Seine for the first time in just over a hundred years. Hidalgo had made it a promise of her time in office to make the Seine swimmable again ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, with the city investing 1.4 billion euros in a clean-up project. Swimming in the Seine had been banned since 1923, due to the dangers of boat traffic and poor water quality. The new bathing areas offer changing areas and will be monitored by life guards for the swimming season, from July 5 to August 31. (Photo by Tom Nicholson/Getty Images)
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Overview

  • Parisians and tourists can swim free of charge until August 31 at three supervised sites in central and eastern Paris, including zones near Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower.
  • Lifeguards administer swim tests before entry, enforce designated areas under a late-June decree and fine unauthorized bathers to ensure safety.
  • Daily water sampling meets EU Bathing Water Directive standards, while a green-flag system guides openings and triggers closures after heavy rain.
  • The launch caps a €1.4 billion Olympic-era cleanup that added disinfection plants, an underground storage basin and upstream sewer hookups.
  • Independent tests by water-tech firm Fluidion highlight wide bacterial fluctuations, underscoring unresolved health risks despite regulatory efforts.