Summer 2020 in Paris will be one for the history books, likely remembered as the summer of masks and hand sanitizers. It will also be one of the quietest summers in decades, with dramatically reduced numbers of international tourists and many locals also away on holidays around France.

The coronavirus pandemic has not succeeded in stopping summer in the city. For the past 18 years, Paris Plages has been the mainstay of the city’s summer programme and it is back again this year. Every summer Paris transforms part of the banks of the Seine and the Bassin de la Villette in the 19th arrondissement into a beachgoer’s paradise with its very own artificial beaches.