Despite "the back in pieces", Arthur Germain managed to swim to Paris, stage of a journey of 780 km from the source of the Seine to its mouth in the English Channel.
The young swimmer engaged, undertook the descent of the river alone.
Objective: to reach Le Havre in 52 days to “raise awareness of environmental protection”.
On arrival, he was greeted by his mother, Anne Hidalgo, mayor of the capital on the verge of tears.
"I am impressed by his performance, concedes the elected after having embraced her son," this generation has not finished surprising us ", she confides.
Since his departure, Arthur Germain bivouacked every evening, eats freeze-dried meals and tries to recover from the fifteen kilometers of daily swimming.
“It's a more difficult challenge than I had imagined, he says, really it's all in the mind.
My arm hurts from the start, but with the support of people, it's easier ”.
In addition to attracting crowds, along his route, Arthur Germain performs tests to measure the quality of the water.
“Ultimately, the Seine is not Chernobyl”, he summarizes, claiming to have bathed in “very clean” sections, contrary to “popular belief”.
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Swim the 780 km of the Seine in 52 days: Arthur Germain's crazy challenge
Anne Hidalgo, had undertaken to improve the quality of the water of the river "to be able to bathe there in 2024 and especially after", as a "legacy" of the Olympic Games. A “bathing plan” launched in 2018 to restore Seine and Marne to “their good ecological condition” and allow bathing there, was endowed with 1.4 billion euros financed by the State and communities. One of its main challenges is to bring wastewater collection into compliance, in particular by putting an end to “bad private connections” upstream of the capital.
