Paris opens Canal Saint-Martin for supervised swimming as France braces for second heatwave of the year
With temperatures forecast to reach 40°C by Sunday, Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire will allow supervised swimming in a 100-metre stretch of the canal from Wednesday evening, an early opening after May’s heatwave saw police struggling to keep young people out of the water.
A cooling response to extreme heat
France is preparing for a second heatwave this year, with Météo-France predicting a gradual build-up of scorching temperatures across the country. By Wednesday, some regions will see 36°C or 37°C, and peak values of 40°C are expected on Sunday, the day of the national Fête de la Musique. In Paris, the mercury is forecast to hover between 34°C and 38°C through the weekend.
The city’s response includes an early opening of a supervised swimming area in the Canal Saint-Martin. The 100-metre section, staffed by lifeguards, will open Wednesday evening and remain available for the duration of the heat peak. Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire described the move as turning an enforcement challenge into a public cooling tool.
Spending an enormous amount of energy, municipal police, and national police to stop young people from swimming when it was 40 degrees... struck us as slightly absurd.
From police enforcement to adaptation
During the May heatwave, which smashed records in half the country, scores of young Parisians jumped illegally from bridges into the canal. The city had to deploy substantial police resources to stop them. Grégoire stressed that bridge jumping remains forbidden and dangerous, but that reversing the logic, permitting rather than prohibiting a supervised swim, was more sensible.
Alexandra Cordebard, mayor of the 10th arrondissement, called the early opening “a new way of fighting climate change and adapting the city.” The trial could later be extended beyond heatwave episodes and even to other sites, Grégoire added, provided it is managed with “rigour and method.”
It is a new way of fighting climate change and adapting the city, by allowing a new way of cooling off on heatwave days for those who can swim in the canal.
Swimming in the Seine to follow
The canal initiative comes ahead of the planned reopening of three supervised swimming areas along the Seine River, now set for 4 July. Last summer, the Seine welcomed bathers for the first time in a century, attracting nearly 100,000 visitors. Entry remains free, though swimmers must use an inflatable buoy provided on site.
Paris invested over a billion euros to clean the Seine for the 2024 Olympics, an effort spearheaded by former mayor Anne Hidalgo. The water quality is now continuously monitored; swimming is suspended whenever it deteriorates, typically after rainfall.
Climate backdrop
Météo-France notes that of the 51 heatwaves recorded nationally since 1947, 34 have occurred after 2000 and 26 after 2011. The UN has warned that global average temperatures are likely to stay at or near record levels this year and for the next four.
- First heatwave: record temperatures in half of France; young people jump into Canal Saint-Martin despite ban.
- Paris opens 100-metre supervised swimming zone in Canal Saint-Martin as second heatwave begins.
- Temperatures expected to peak at 40°C in some regions, coinciding with the Fête de la Musique.
- Three supervised swimming sites on the Seine River reopen for the summer season.
