PARIS — To many Parisians, swimming in the Seine sounds icky.
But starting Saturday, taking a dip in the famed river while enjoying a view of the Eiffel Tower will officially become possible.
For years, the notoriously skeptical Parisian public was unconvinced that the estimated €1.4 billion project was worth it, especially as authorities struggled to keep the water clean during the Olympics last summer. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, however, is not one to let critics or pessimists get in the way of her plan to transform the French capital from a polluted megacity into an oasis of urban sustainability.
Making the Seine swimmable is one of the final major projects Hidalgo will inaugurate before she leaves office next year. She will depart having overseen one of the most drastic makeovers Paris has undergone since the mid-19th century, when Napoleon III and Georges-Eugène Haussmann ripped up what was a fetid medieval city and laid the groundwork for Paris as it is today.
