Swimming within the Seine : NPR

Eleanor Beardsley, Jackie Lay/NPR

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly sequence by which NPR’s worldwide correspondents share snapshots of moments from their lives and work all over the world.

This summer season, for the primary time because the Nineteen Twenties, the Seine River is open for swimming!

There are designated public swimming locations and docks have been constructed at a number of, like this one close to the Eiffel Tower. Even on cloudy days, Parisians and vacationers are flocking to them.

You may sunbathe or swim laps in opposition to the river’s mild present in a roped-off space. All of the whereas, the barge and pleasure boat site visitors continues — giving the expertise a type of surreal picturesqueness. Once I stopped by right here final month, two lifeguards informed me there’s much more to look out for right here than at a daily pool.

For years town’s mayors have been promising to scrub up the polluted river for swimming. It lastly occurred with final summer season’s Olympic Video games, the place large overflow tanks had been constructed to include sewage throughout heavy rains.

Opening the river to bathers could not have come at a greater time, with Paris affected by successive warmth waves. So identical to in Impressionist work and previous sepia pictures, Parisians can as soon as once more cool off of their river.

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