Baignade en Seine, toute une histoire: the Musée des Égouts de Paris exhibition

Swimming in the Seine is something today's Parisians have never experienced, since it was banned almost 100 years ago, in 1923! But for many years now, it has been the wish of the city council to be able to return to it, and after the Olympic Games , where athletes were able to throw themselves into the water, swimming should once again be authorized in 2025! A long story full of twists and turns, which the Musée des Egouts de Paris retraces for you, until December 31, 2024.

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The exhibition looks back over three centuries of use and questions surrounding the river, from regulations governing the right to bathe, to social practices, to the actions taken by public authorities to ensure that people will one day be able to bathe in it again. How can we clean up the water in the Seine, making it fit for bathing? What better way to answer these questions than through the sewers and their wastewater, with a host of objects and devices, including bathing outfits from the Ancien Régime!

Very fashionable in the 17th century, swimming in the Seine appeared along the Quai de Sully, but it was customary to go naked! This practice soon disappeared, with the appearance of floating pools on the river until the 19th century. In 1923, a prefectoral decree prohibited bathing under penalty of fine,"due to the dangers caused by river navigation and pollution". 60 years later, in 1988, Jacques Chirac promised that bathing would be possible"in five years".

Obviously, it won't happen, but one of her successors, Anne Hidalgo won't budge. In the end, she bathed there in 2024, for the Paris Olympics, where athletes were able to compete in the Seine, after a series of setbacks. The aim now is to make it accessible to the general public at three sites by summer 2025: the Marie and Grenelle arms, and the Quai de Bercy. It's a long battle, far from over, which has cost almost 1.4 billion euros!