Paris promises swimming at city beach

PARIS (Reuters) - It's got palm trees, deck chairs, and sand -- and at long last, Paris' city centre beach is now going to offer people a place to bathe.


Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said on Thursday the fourth year of Paris Plage (Paris Beach) would include a 220-square metre swimming pool where people could cool off without plunging into the polluted River Seine.


"Ever since we first did this, everyone's been asking: 'When will be able to swim?'," Delanoe told reporters at the Paris town hall. The pool will be ready for opening in two weeks.


"This year we are increasing the amount of water on offer with sprinklers, a water maze and a 220-square metre swimming pool that is 1.1 metres (four feet) deep."


The beach, copied in Berlin, Budapest, Lyon and Milan since Paris's Socialist mayor pioneered it in 2001, opens from mid-July to mid-August and drew three million people last year.


This year's big innovation will be the pool with changing rooms, showers and bathing suit dispensers for those who forget their gear.


Designed primarily for children, the pool will also host aqua-gym classes for adults starting with sessions for early risers at 8:00 a.m. It will be filled with treated municipal water and cleaned like a regular pool.


The 2004 edition of Paris Plage, which will again stretch over three kilometres from the Louvre Museum to the Ile Saint Louis, will cost two million euros (1.3 million pounds), though sponsoring deals mean the cost to taxpayers is 600,000 euros -- 200,000 less than last year.


Lifeguards will patrol the pool that will be installed between Paris' Marie and Sully bridges.


Last August, Parisians and tourists alike were grateful for the water fountains and sprinklers of Paris Beach during a heat wave that killed 15,000 people, mainly the elderly and sick.


This year Paris' bridges will be illuminated at night, a sandpit set up for sandcastle-builders and a water-sprinkled walkway will wind through a maze of tropical plants.


"The city can be aggressive and stressful...the idea is to provide support and pleasure for the hundreds of thousands of residents who don't go away on holiday," Delanoe said.


Despite concern the crowded beach would also prove a paradise for criminals, Delanoe said the worst crime last year was the theft of a mobile phone.


Other attractions at the beach include a climbing wall, trampolines and beach volleyball. But one of the biggest sports is sprinting for the 200 deck chairs and 40 hammocks.