Ten days before the Olympics, Anne Hidalgo finally went swimming in the Seine

A little over a week before the opening of the Olympic Games and in front of the world’s press, Anne Hidalgo threw herself into the Seine. After 101 years of being banned, the river is once again swimmable, in time for the triathlon and open water swimming events. Several deputies and dozens of amateur athletes also took a dip. The Parisians who witnessed the scene are divided.

The work cost 1.4 billion euros, for the construction of a giant basin to store polluted water in the event of a storm, and the compliance of the sanitation networks of 23,000 homes. For two weeks, the concentration levels of E. coli have often been below the alert threshold. Results confirmed by samples taken by the NGO Surfrider, which is nevertheless concerned about runoff in the event of precipitation. If storms occur just before the events, they will be postponed by a few days or transferred to another site.