After multiple delays caused by a combination of torrential rain and torrid domestic politics, Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, took to the cleaned-up waters of the Seine on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise that has become a symbol of the Paris Olympics.
With the Games just nine days away, on the kind of perfect Paris morning that inspires wonder, Ms. Hidalgo, a socialist who has pursued the ecological transformation of the city, stepped down into the murky river that will be a focal point of the Olympics.
A vast engineering project, costing some $1.5 billion over the past several years, has stanched the flow of sewage and industrial waste into the Seine.