Floating pool opens on Seine

PARIS, July 5 (UPI) -- A new floating swimming pool is opening on the Seine to replace the beloved Piscine Deligny that sank in 1993.

To celebrate, the summer conversion of the Seine quays into a mock beach will extend to both sides of the river, the London Independent reported.

The newspaper said the loss of the brass and carved wood Piscine Deligny, used as an Olympic swimming pool in the 1924 Paris Games, was described as an "urban Titanic" disaster.

The new pool is to be called the Piscine Josephine Baker, after the American dancer, singer, civil rights activist and French resistance heroine, who died in Paris in 1975. The main pool is 82 feet long and 32 feet wide. There will also be a children's pool, a sauna, whirlpool bath, solarium and bar.

The pool will be moored on the left bank, near the new national library, the Bibliotheque François Mitterrand, the newspaper said.