For decades, swimming in the Seine was fantasy or provocation. The river water was deemed too polluted, unfit for swimming. But on the occasion of the Olympic Games, Paris had promised a metamorphosis. Thanks to major depollution and modernization of sanitation networks, the objective was clear: to make the Seine accessible to swimmers.
One year after the Olympic free water swimming tests, the town hall opened several official areas of supervised swimming. And, more than 80,000 people threw themselves in the water in Paris between June and August 2025.
COMPUTER: No serious case of infection identified
The great fear was obviously health. Did we risk gastrointestinal infections? Skin diseases? Or worse still? According to the balance sheet published by the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Île-de-France, the verdict is reassuring: no serious infection case (neither bacterial nor viral) was reported this summer among the bathers.
Of course, some bathers have been able to feel slight inconvenience (irritation, small digestive disorders), as can happen in any natural water, but nothing worrying has been noted by health services.
The city sports assistant, Pierre Rabadan, welcomes an expected success: “It is not a surprise, because we have set up extremely strict daily health surveillance”he recalled.
Swimming in the Seine: a sanitary feat … but not only!
A very rigorous sanitary protocol
The key to this success is continuous monitoring of water quality. Each day, analyzes were carried out to measure the concentration of Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci, two bacteria indicating of factories.
As soon as European thresholds were exceeded, swimming was temporarily prohibited. The controls therefore made it possible to avoid any exposure to high risks. According to data relayed by the ARS and by the City of Paris, these restrictions have been punctual but essential to guarantee the safety of users.
A political and symbolic victory for the city of Paris
For Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, this assessment is a personal and political victory. Criticized for years on the feasibility of this project deemed utopian, it can now boast of having “returned the Seine to the Parisians”.
The HuffPost reports that the mayor did not hide his pride by recalling that “bad languages” announced a health fiasco, while experience proves the opposite. It is also a symbolic victory for the image of Paris. Showing that a river long considered an open -air trash can become a place of leisure and nature in full capital.
And after? Towards a sustainability of swimming
The question now is simple: will experience be renewed? Everything suggests yes. Attendance goes far beyond the expectations of the city and the absence of a health problem strengthens public confidence.
The next few sums should therefore see swimming in the Seine register for a long time in the summer habits of Parisians, in the same way as municipal swimming pools or the edges of Marne. It remains to maintain efforts on water quality, because the river remains fragile and depends on many factors (rain, wastewater releases, pollution episodes).
NAMELY
Open for free from July 5 to August 31, 2025, three areas were developed as part of Paris beaches: Bercy, Grenelle and Bras Marie. These secure spaces include delimited basins, showers, changing rooms, solariums, and are accessible to people with reduced mobility.
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