2.2 Bathing Despite Regulations and the Development
of Industry and Harbors
The occupation of the banks and the uses of the Seine River were regulated from the
beginning of the eighteenth century. A law on June 5, 1711, thus “forbids anyone to
bathe in the arm of the Seine River from the bridge of the Hotel Dieu hospital, to that
called the Petit Pont, the fine was 20 pounds.” The same prohibition was reiterated in
1724, 1737, and 1738 [4]. It was mainly for reasons of morality that these prohibitions were imposed following the excessive behavior of some bathers exposing
themselves nude close to the Hôtel Dieu Hospital. Other reasons motivated the
prohibitions to bathe in the Seine River. A police order dated June 28, 1726, stated:
“It is forbidden for the water carriers to draw water during the summer from the
Great Degrees to the Pont Neuf and from the Saint-Paul port to the Ecole pier (. . .)
and all people to swim in this stretch of the river, punishable by a fine of four
hundred pounds.” Starting from this time until the first half of the nineteenth century,
on its periphery the city tended to reject all the activities likely to encumber the banks
and to hinder river traffic [5]. However, wild bathing in the Seine River remained the
rule for the working classes, despite the regulations and the fines, until the 1930s,
which saw the development of an alternative with the municipal baths and swimming pools.
The development of shipping and the installation of warehouses and factories on
the banks during the nineteenth century did not seem to change the appetite for wild
bathing. In 1822, a report from the canal manager reported the presence of
150 bathers along the Bassin de la Villette, who threatened and insulted the guards
[5]. In 1877, the famous sanitary engineer Durand-Claye noted that “every year since
time immemorial, the Bassin de la Villette has been invaded by the crowd of workers
from the neighbourhood whose number sometimes amounts to 500, 600 or even
more.”
2.3 Bathing in Suburban Areas: From the Middle
of the Nineteenth Century
From the mid-nineteenth century, to escape urban and industrial life, Parisians
started to enjoy the banks of the Seine and Marne rivers in the suburbs of Paris to
relax or party [6]. Trams and other suburban trains facilitated access to the capital’s
surrounding recreational areas for the working classes as well as upper-class families, who enjoyed a picnic on the grass, a walk, a fishing party, or boating activities.
The pleasure of bathing that has always been enjoyed in both rivers largely developed in these improvised spaces, appropriated by bathers, between natural cove and
sandbank. Later, the Ile-de-France municipalities gradually developed the banks to
create beaches and whole complexes to accommodate not only bathers but also
Bathing Activities and Microbiological River Water Quality in the Paris. . .
327
of Industry and Harbors
The occupation of the banks and the uses of the Seine River were regulated from the
beginning of the eighteenth century. A law on June 5, 1711, thus “forbids anyone to
bathe in the arm of the Seine River from the bridge of the Hotel Dieu hospital, to that
called the Petit Pont, the fine was 20 pounds.” The same prohibition was reiterated in
1724, 1737, and 1738 [4]. It was mainly for reasons of morality that these prohibitions were imposed following the excessive behavior of some bathers exposing
themselves nude close to the Hôtel Dieu Hospital. Other reasons motivated the
prohibitions to bathe in the Seine River. A police order dated June 28, 1726, stated:
“It is forbidden for the water carriers to draw water during the summer from the
Great Degrees to the Pont Neuf and from the Saint-Paul port to the Ecole pier (. . .)
and all people to swim in this stretch of the river, punishable by a fine of four
hundred pounds.” Starting from this time until the first half of the nineteenth century,
on its periphery the city tended to reject all the activities likely to encumber the banks
and to hinder river traffic [5]. However, wild bathing in the Seine River remained the
rule for the working classes, despite the regulations and the fines, until the 1930s,
which saw the development of an alternative with the municipal baths and swimming pools.
The development of shipping and the installation of warehouses and factories on
the banks during the nineteenth century did not seem to change the appetite for wild
bathing. In 1822, a report from the canal manager reported the presence of
150 bathers along the Bassin de la Villette, who threatened and insulted the guards
[5]. In 1877, the famous sanitary engineer Durand-Claye noted that “every year since
time immemorial, the Bassin de la Villette has been invaded by the crowd of workers
from the neighbourhood whose number sometimes amounts to 500, 600 or even
more.”
2.3 Bathing in Suburban Areas: From the Middle
of the Nineteenth Century
From the mid-nineteenth century, to escape urban and industrial life, Parisians
started to enjoy the banks of the Seine and Marne rivers in the suburbs of Paris to
relax or party [6]. Trams and other suburban trains facilitated access to the capital’s
surrounding recreational areas for the working classes as well as upper-class families, who enjoyed a picnic on the grass, a walk, a fishing party, or boating activities.
The pleasure of bathing that has always been enjoyed in both rivers largely developed in these improvised spaces, appropriated by bathers, between natural cove and
sandbank. Later, the Ile-de-France municipalities gradually developed the banks to
create beaches and whole complexes to accommodate not only bathers but also
Bathing Activities and Microbiological River Water Quality in the Paris. . .
327