Dozens of people arrived early in the morning on Saturday to paddle into the once-polluted water, following a clean-up brought on by last year's Summer Olympics.

The famed Seine river in Paris opened to the public for swimming on Saturday for the first time in over a 100 years, a key victory for outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo.

The River Seine was to reopen to swimmers on Saturday in Paris after a century-long ban on taking a dip in the waterway, offering locals in the French capital and tourists a welcome respite after a week of scorching temperatures.