this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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For the first time in over a century, Parisians and tourists will be able to take a refreshing dip in the River Seine. The long-polluted waterway is finally opening up as a summertime swim spot following a 1.4 billion euro ($1.5 billion) cleanup project that made it suitable for Olympic competitions last year.

Three new swimming sites on the Paris riverbank will open on Saturday — one close to Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, another near the Eiffel Tower and a third in eastern Paris.

Swimming in the Seine has been illegal since 1923, with a few exceptions, due to pollution and risks posed by river navigation. Taking a dip outside bathing areas is still banned for safety reasons.

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[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

No thanks I'll stick to my local secret lake that nobody shits in

[–] shiroininja@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Jokes on you, I’m already there, shitting.

[–] lemmylump@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Move over I was shitting here first.

[–] shiroininja@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] lemmylump@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Why not, let's show that turd who's boss.

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 hours ago

It's been in the work for quite a while. The mayor of Paris announced that the seine will be open for swimming in 5 years ... In 1988.

So it took a bit longer than planned, almost 50 years instead of 5 but the fact that they are opening it now is the result of these 50 years of continuous improvement.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 60 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

It's controlled every day and closed if there's any danger, for example after heavy rains bringing more pollution than usual. They have started finding different forms of life that only happen in very clean waters, it's pretty cool. One of the few positive ecological news lately.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 12 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Still wouldn't trust it.

It's been a poop river for hundreds of years and they haven't separated out sewer from storm water yet.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 15 points 6 hours ago

I think it's mediagenic enough that journalists and other organizations probably tried to do their own tests and found nothing suspicious that wasn't officially announced.

By the Olympic Games 2024, the work to improve the infrastructure to prevent pollution already costed 1.4 billions of euros. I guess additional infrastructure for exceptional meteorological events was just too much to be justified.

If the water is tested every day of the opened swimming season, there's no reason to worry.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

Friends with a pool had a sign saying "don't pee in our pool, we don't swim in your toilet". In Paris however...

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

Reason #4,538 why I'll never live in or near a large city.

[–] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

You won't live near cities that clean up their waterways? You could rival Michelin publishing that list of reasons you have.

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 2 points 2 hours ago

There is always a big city upstream

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 18 points 8 hours ago

And this is why while while everyone was bitching about how much money this will cost i was just thinking about how nice it will be when you can finally swim in it again. Of course there is a lot of long term infrastructure that needs to be built so big rains dont flush all the shit into it but still good news. It was also smart of the mayor to do this "for" the olympics.

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 18 points 9 hours ago
[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I assume embarrassment on the world stage helped move this along given the Olympics?

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 hours ago

Who knew anything good could result from the Olympics