It was the big news of summer 2025: since July 5th, swimming in the Seine has been open for free to the public! This measure has clearly charmed Parisians, as 75,600 people—according to numbers from Libération revealed on Tuesday, August 19, 2025— have taken the big plunge into the river. Initially, the swimming would close on August 31, 2025, but given the excitement generated, the City of Paris is considering extending this ambitious and unprecedented initiative for several more weeks.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
A big splash in the Seine, 100 years after its ban
It had been exactly 100 years since swimming in the Seine was banned. To celebrate this reopening, three new sites for free and supervised swimming have been opened in addition to the Rives de Seine park, the Villette basin, and the Saint-Martin canal: the Bercy quay, the Bras Marie, and the Bras Grenelle. And despite a rainy July, the beginning of August brought a heatwave that convinced a very large audience to dive right in. A peak attendance of 23,500 swimmers was recorded in the week of August 15 when very high temperatures were felt.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
A potential extension is still under discussion
Although nothing has been confirmed yet, the City of Paris has stated to the Parisien that they are still in discussion regarding the extension of the program. Several factors need to be taken into account, including financial criteria, as well as the availability of lifeguards and the authorization to change navigation conditions, as Pierre Rabadan mentioned in the newspaper earlier this month. What about the possibility of swimming in the Seine in mid-September? Stay tuned!
