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.

First, France cleaned the polluted river so that Olympians could swim there. Now, a year later, it is opening three sites for locals to plunge in.

The French capital's iconic waterway has been largely closed to swimmers since 1923 due to pollution and risks from river navigation.