OPINION: Seine swimming is part of a quiet revolution in Paris
swimming in the river was banned
because the water was too polluted.
These swimming spots have proved extremely popular with locals and tourists alike -
40,000 people have swum so far
and there are often queues to get into the sites, especially on hot days.
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Everything you need to know about swimming in the Seine in Paris this summer
I can entirely see why. The thing I've been struck by as I plunged into the river this summer (aside from the gorgeous relief of cool water on a hot day) is the sense of sheer joy at each site.
Even the Parisians, normally famous for their reserve/grumpiness, can't hide their excitement.
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One morning I heard an older French lady call to her friend across the water: "Look at us! Swimming in the Seine, can you believe it?!" Head to any one of the three swimming spots and you'll hear similar sentiments.
You can understand the sense of disbelief among longtime residents - the photo below of the Seine banks taken in 2015 paints a very different picture.
Vehicles drive on the lower quais of the River Seine on June 19, 2015, before the riverbanks were pedestrianised. Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP
Instead of the throngs of picnickers, joggers, cyclists, dog-walkers and families who today fill the
quais
(lower riverbanks) there were cars thundering along a highway. The river itself was filthy - far too polluted to swim in and even the fish had mostly left or died.
The transformation has taken significant investment and a lot of political will.
The pedestrianised banks of the Seine, pictured in 2025 during the summer 'Paris plage' events. Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP
The total cost of cleaning up the Seine was €1.4 billion and - much as I appreciate it - they didn't spend all that just to give me a nice swimming spot in the summer. The ability to swim in it is a by-product of a cleaner river - one that is now brimming with diversity and no longer acts as a dumping ground for the factories further upstream.
A random statistic -
40 species of fish
now live in the river, compared to just four in 1970 (along with a goodly collection of river plants and weed which you might encounter while swimming).
Mayor Anne Hidalgo and her predecessor, Bertrand Delanoë had to fight a series of legal battles to get the cars off the river banks permanently in 2018 and open them up to locals and tourists to use as a leisure space. They faced a stiff political battle too, despite various temporary and partial pedestrianisation schemes proving popular.
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And the river banks are just one example of the enormous changes that have taken place in Paris over the past decade and a half - hundreds of streets pedestrianised and turned into green spaces, more than 1,000km of cycle lanes created, 130,000 trees planted so far (the plan is to have 170,000 by 2026).
For me the best explanation of the overarching goal of this policy comes from Hidalgo's deputy mayor, David Belliard,
who said
: 'The redistribution of public space is a policy of social redistribution.
'50 percent of public space is occupied by private cars, which are used mostly by the richest, and mostly by men, because it's mostly men who drive, and so in total, the richest men are using half the public space.
"So if we give the space to walking, cycling, and public transit, you give back public space to the categories of people who today are deprived."
The Seine
quais
are a prime example of this and are now one of the most vibrant and exciting spaces in Paris, especially on summer evenings.
The Bercy swimming site on a summer evening. Photo: Emma Pearson
Before we get too carried away, let's not pretend that Paris is perfect - the city still has a long way to go on air pollution, the public transport is
largely inaccessible to people with disabilities
while the
housing shortage
seems to get worse every day. Multiple other problems exist; no-one is trying to pretend that the city is paradise.
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But to my mind, the quiet revolution in how the city space is used is equal to anything that Baron Haussmann did with his eye-catching architecture.
Many of those who oppose action on climate change peddle the myth that you can either take action on the climate or you can maintain a good standard of living, but you can't have both.
Paris is the living proof that this isn't true - can anyone truly look at old photos of the Seine and believe that its use then was better than what we have now?
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