Floating Movie Theater With Socially-Distant Electric Boats Launches In Paris

“Cinema On the Water” marks the beginning of the City of Lights’ annual summer program for outdoor sports and leisure.

Say what you will about Paris, summer there is historically mild and pleasant, and the French know it’s a draw, even during a pandemic. So Paris Plages—”Paris Beaches,” an event run by the city that features artificial beaches along the Seine—is on again, and features an innovation in drive-in moviegoing. 

With Cinema Sur l’eau (Cinema on the Water), it’s boat-in theater, and has the added element of being environmentally friendly as well as relatively safe for moviegoers who want to avoid coronavirus infection.

Here’s more from Designboom:

Paris Plages is scheduled to take place from July 18 to August 30, 2020, inviting Parisians and visitors alike to relax and enjoy the banks of the Seine river.

The floating cinema will mark the opening of this year’s program, with a fleet of 38 electric boats that ensure social distancing measures for attendees (who have already been selected through a raffle). Additionally, 150 deckchairs will also be available in the Paris Plages area for those that want to watch the film from the Quai de Seine on a 16 x 9-meter screen.

The screen is 52 by 30 feet, for those who don’t do the metric system. 

While it’s a bummer that this year’s attendees have already been selected by raffle, it’s also tough to journey to Paris from some parts of the world right now.

Still, this is an innovation that’s likely to spread. An Austin, Texas theater already did a variation on it in 2017, with a showing of Jaws on Lake Travis for viewers in boats and innertubes. COVID-19 has already spawned a kind of low-key rebirth for drive-in theaters as it is, so it’s inevitable that new takes on the experience will arise.

Learn more about Paris Plages (in English) and plan for a future trip once we’re all coronavirus-free here: en.parisinfo.com.