VIDEO. Swimming in the Seine: We visited the construction site near the Eiffel Tower

Next Saturday, July 5, swimming in the Seine will be possible at the Port de Grenelle, one of three bathing sites in Paris this summer. Final work to accommodate swimmers is underway.

A few dozen meters from the Bir-Hakeim bridge, famous for its view of the Eiffel Tower and its elevated metro, a barge, equipped with a crane, is unloading pallets. On the quay, workers are busy building the pontoon that will form the future swimming area . "We are currently setting up the pontoons that will delimit the pool on the quay side ," explains Stéphanie Le Guédard, deputy director of Youth and Sports for the city of Paris. " On the Seine side, the pool will be delimited by a line of buoys and then a small pool will arrive, already set up for families, " she continues.

The entire bathing area was designed to be dismantled in less than 48 hours in the event of a flood. Charles Freudiger, one of the architects, explains that everything " is modular ." " The site is assembled using small, numbered elements ," he explains.

The most complex element is the structure that will support the U-shaped pontoon. In addition to resisting the currents, it must adapt to the river level, which fluctuates with rainfall. " The pontoon is designed with a pebble system. You can see that it moves here, so it adapts to the flood level, it can rise up to here [about two meters above the quay], explains the founder of the architecture firm Mater Studio. This roughly corresponds to the fiftieth-year flood, a winter flood that will probably never happen ."

The construction of this swimming site, which includes a 60-meter pool, changing rooms, restrooms, and a children's pool, cost €1.8 million. The plan to make the Seine suitable for swimming, launched in 2016 by the Île-de-France region, cost a total of €1.4 billion.

Pierre Rabadan, Anne Hidalgo's deputy for sports, is confident about the water quality: " At the beginning of June, we had one day, following heavy rain, where the water quality was not good. But otherwise, the water quality is extremely satisfactory. I think we could have gone swimming today without any problems." He also points out that swimming is allowed " only in the three dedicated sites: one at Grenelle, one at Pont-Marie and one at Bercy. " The site at the port of Grenelle will be able to accommodate 200 swimmers at a time. Free of charge, it will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day from July 5.