The son of Paris’ mayor is swimming down the River Seine
Date: July 4, 2021
Location: Paris, France
Arthur Germain set a goal of swimming down the 481.5-mile-long river
by swimming 9 miles every day
(SOUNDBITE) (French) SWIMMER AND PARIS MAYOR ANNE HIDALGO’S SON, ARTHUR GERMAIN, SAYING:
“My challenge has been very difficult during the first two weeks. I lost five kilos at the start even though I’m already fairly slim. But I’m a swimmer, I’m very well trained, so when I started to be able to swim more and I didn’t have to pass trees anymore or stopped having problems with the water temperature, and so on, it started to get better.”
Germain is raising awareness about river pollution
and campaigning for its clean up
(SOUNDBITE) (French) SWIMMER AND PARIS MAYOR ANNE HIDALGO’S SON, ARTHUR GERMAIN, SAYING:
“So I sample the water, I take samples to test water quality. It’s the first study taking place from a river’s source to its mouth, so it’s super interesting because it allows us to know exactly where we can clean up the Seine. In addition, it’s a major advantage to reopen the Seine to swimming in a few years.”