This idea is not new. Last year, about 2.3 million people visited an artificial beach in the center of Paris. This year, an even greater influx of those wishing to sunbathe with a view of the Conciergerie bastions and the Île Saint-Louis is expected. Especially for them, the Paris city hall, led by socialist Bertrand Delanoë and his deputy from the Green Party, Denis Baupin, invited designer and scenographer Jean-Christophe Choblet, who created a whole concept of beach recreation in the French capital.
Last week, on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the high-speed Pompidou expressway, built along the Seine on beams driven into the river, was closed. Under the rays of television floodlights, small trucks with sand were unloaded. It was delivered to the Paris freight port from a quarry in Sandricourt, in the neighboring department of Yvelines, by a huge barge. According to statistics, three thousand tons of sand were brought in! Three times more than last year.
But this does not at all mean that the beaches will be exclusively sandy. A grassy beach is also provided, and a boardwalk beach, as at the resorts of Normandy. Part of the sand will also go to the beach volleyball court, which is laid out right on the square in front of the Hôtel de Ville - the Paris city hall. A mini-town is also planned for lovers of building castles and sculptures from sand. For them, special sand was even brought in - extremely fine, hardening in the sun. There will also be shower cabins and changing rooms painted white and blue, palm trees in tubs and flagpoles, wall bars for gymnastics and special climbing walls. And also a 'guinguette' - an indispensable in France restaurant on the water, where you drink cold white wine and dance till you drop to the accordion and clarinet. From July 20 to August 17, twenty-four hours a day, the Paris beaches will be open to everyone.
It is only a pity that the Tuileries Garden and the Marais, the Jewish quarter famous for its medieval architecture, are not located on the shore of a real sea. After all, swimming in the Seine within Paris is strictly forbidden.