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Inside France: The huge Seine clean-up, upsetting the British and gassing about Chat GPT

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Not so in-Seine One hundred and two years ago, the city of Paris banned swimming in the Seine because of the dangerously high levels of pollution in the river. Since then various city officials (including Jacques Chirac during his time as mayor) have tried to bring it back but none succeeded - until now. Three swimming spots will open up in the Seine on Saturday, July 5th, offering locals and tourists alike the chance to take a dip - with the proviso that they will only open if water quality levels are safe. It's likely that the pools may close for a day or so if there are more storms or flash floods in the city. READ ALSO : Where in Paris you can swim the Seine this summer This is the culmination of a massive clean-up effort - and it's important to note that Paris didn't spend €1.5 billion to let people swim. It spent €1.5 billion to make the river clean enough that people could swim. This is an enormous legacy project that will hopefully benefit many generations to come, as well as bringing back to life the river's biodiversity. There have been many people who were apparently keen to see them fail - both during the Olympic challenges that were the first stage of the swimming project and now. 2024 headline from The European Conservative Headline from The Times on the day the Olympic triathlon swimming event was held in the Seine I think that the city deserves immense credit for ignoring the haters and pushing ahead with a project that has been, yes, expensive, complicated and sometimes disappointing but will ultimately benefit billions. I look forward to swimming in it this summer - not just to enjoy a cool dip on a hot day but because this seems to me to be a symbol of 21st century Paris; ambitious, bold, forward-looking, environmentally conscious and working to improve the quality of life for its inhabitants. Advertisement Talking France We discuss swimming in the Seine in this week's Talking France podcast, as well as the landmark legal verdict over Brittany's toxic green algae and how France has, so far, managed to avoid anti-tourism protests of the type seen in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Listen here or on the link below. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of podcasting I see that the French have been stirring up trouble in the UK again, indirectly anyway. Paris-based journalist Sophie Pedder's question to the British ex-MP and podcast host Rory Stewart was a simple one 'What is it that bugs you so much about the French? Why can you never be positive about any French politician?', but it sparked quite a row between Stewart and his podcast co-host Alistair Campbell. My take is that Sophie is quite right, there is among certain Brits (especially posh older men) a lazy and frankly tedious strain of 'hating the French', based on very little actual knowledge of the country next door. There's plenty to dislike and criticise about French politicians, but doing so simply because they are French is just dull. What prompted all this, incidentally, was ex prime minister Gabriel Attal's trip to London - following in the footsteps of his mentor Emmanuel Macron who made a big effort to court London's French community back when he was launching his presidential ambitions in 2016/7. Advertisement French language observation of the week I will never again be able to hear about Chat GPT without thinking of this In French chat gpt sounds like "chatte j'ai pété" which means "pussy I farted". Every time a French person talks about chat gpt it sounds like they are saying "pussy I farted" We don't talk about this enough — Emily Herring ( @ ) 26 June 2025 at 09:40 Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.