Motorway to be converted into a beach for the second year running
If you are heading for Paris this summer, don’t forget to pack your swimsuit.
For the second year running, the city’s authorities have decided that a two-mile stretch of the Voie Georges Pompidou – a motorway running along the right bank of the River Seine – will be converted into an urban beach, complete with hammocks, palm trees and deck chairs.
According to a report in today’s Independent newspaper, the beach, which will be in existence from 20 July to 17 August, is “mocked by opposition politicians and hated by motorists” – but adored by tourists and stay-at-home Parisians. As well as three thousand tonnes of sand, some three times as much as last year, will be brought into the city, and there will be water mazes and cold water showers to keep the temperatures down. Users of the beach will not be allowed to bathe in the Seine.
New facilities this year also include a lending library with English and French books, a youth club, and a café with “dancing to traditional French popular music a la Edith Piaf”. “Paris Plage” is already being hailed as one of the most successful innovations of the socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, according to The Independent.
