"It's going to be one of the most beautiful spots in the world"
.
The mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan is confident.
By next year, the elected official hopes to have realized his project to transform the basin at the foot of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations into a natural swimming pool.
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On his Twitter account, Benoît Payan announced on Saturday June 11 a succession of projects around the Marseille coast, which the municipality intends
to “enhance and make more accessible to all”
.
Among them, the development of a swimming pool in the city center, at the foot of the MuCEM.
Although it is not uncommon to see young people from Marseille taking a dip there, swimming in this basin currently reserved for the anchoring of pleasure boats is for the time being prohibited.
The project would in particular ensure the safety of swimmers.
“Too little access to the coast”
for the Marseillais
In an interview with local media
Made in Marseille
, the elected official confirms that the municipality is already starting to work on this project.
“We are monitoring water quality.
We are going, all this year, to look at it very closely and to ensure that the optimal safety and health conditions can be obtained so that, next year, we open it, ”
he confides.
For its part, the association of Free Swimmers, which has been campaigning for more than a year to make this pool the first Olympic natural swimming pool, is delighted on social networks, wondering if
“the dream”
would soon become reality.
In another tweet, the association explains that this development is necessary to
"find the bathing uses for the Marseillais of the city center and the northern districts which have only too little access to the coast"
.
Next step for Benoît Payan and his team:
"convince"
the Metropolis of Aix-Marseille-Provence, in charge of managing the water body, to carry out this project
"together",
he adds on his Twitter account .
Administratively attached to the Old Port, this maritime space of the MuCEM is also a place of passage for certain tourist ships.
Asked by
BFM TV
, the captain of La Flâneuse is worried about seeing his activity slowed down, worse seeing it fall into the water:
“I will no longer be able to dock here unless there is no one there.
All weekends will be doomed.”
