On Bridges in Paris, Clanking With Love
-
PARIS — Johannes and Melissa. David and Michaela. Ben and Justin.
These are a few of the names written on thousands of metal padlocks attached to the railings of the Pont des Arts, one of the most beautiful of the bridges spanning the Seine as it winds through Paris.
The keys have long since been tossed into the water by those who attached the locks to the bridge, most of them couples who hoped that they would be, as the words on one lock put it, “locked in love forever.”
The mass of locks looks at best like modern sculpture and at worst like a sort of metallic tumor that has taken over the bridge. Either way, the locks are hardly in keeping with the architecture. The bridge was designed and built in the early 1800s and then reconstructed in the 1980s as a replica of the original.
It is not the only Paris bridge suffering from too much love: The Pont de l’Archevêché and the Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir are also popular sites for those compelled to proclaim the depth of their feelings through hardware.
Now, the Pont des Arts has become the stage for a battle between classical aesthetics and historical preservation on the one hand and, on the other, the contemporary compulsion to express the private publicly. And this is all playing out against the backdrop of the transcendent romance that has long defined Paris for visitors and residents alike.
The locks have become so numerous that the city is mulling whether it can encourage the love-locked to express their undying commitment some other way. For those who treasure Paris’s architectural history, the locks are “visual pollution” and “an eyesore,” said Lisa Taylor Huff, an American writer who makes her home in Paris and has mounted a Facebook campaign with a friend to try to persuade the city to remove the locks.
“Why did the city sacrifice this to tourism?” Ms. Huff asked, referring to the bridges.
To be fair, there are also French people who fasten locks to the bridge, but a more common reaction was that of a French couple walking across the bridge on a recent afternoon. The man shook his head disapprovingly. “It ruins one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris,” he said.
“Crazy,” replied his companion.
Others are more forgiving. “It doesn’t improve the bridge,” said Marianne Truffine, 49, a Belgian artist, who was visiting Paris with her mother and daughter. “On the other hand it is a proof of love, and all proofs of love are beautiful.”
For others, the bridge, like much of central Paris, has become a stage set. On one recent afternoon, a glamorous-looking British couple from London came to the bridge for a daylong photo shoot for their wedding album. They eagerly attached their lock to the bridge and tossed the key into the river as their photographers snapped away — although the shot of the key toss was less than perfect.
“Pretend like you’re throwing it again,” said one of the photographers. The groom agreeably complied.
The more romantically inclined visitors to the bridge were joined by the police, who won’t stop lock affixers but are on the lookout for lock sellers, who are prohibited from hawking their wares on or near the bridge. There was not a lock seller in sight at 4 p.m., but as the afternoon shadows lengthened and the police finished their shift, the hawkers materialized and with them scores of gleaming locks, 5 euros ($7) for the smallest and 10 euros for the largest.
To Ms. Huff and another American, Lisa Anselmo, who lives part time in Paris, the locks are a harmful tourist indulgence, and they say the city should remove them and give people an alternative. When Moscow had the same problem, Ms. Huff said, it erected metal trees that people could use as a perch for their love locks.
Metal trees do not sound like a Parisian solution. Cologne, Germany; Rome; Budapest, Hungary; and London have all faced the same problem. London and Rome have tried removing the locks, only to see them materialize anew. Few cities, though, have the sheer number of locks that Paris has.
Rome regularly has to fish out the coins thrown into Trevi Fountain. The small change nets the city $1.4 million a year, which is donated to Caritas, a major Catholic charity, the City Council said.
Although the locks of love started to appear on Paris bridges in 2008, their history dates back at least 100 years to a melancholy Serbian tale of World War I that recounts the love of a young schoolteacher in the spa town of Vrnjacka Banja for a soldier as he was about to go to the front. When Serbia fell, the soldier married a local woman in Greece, where he had been fighting, and never returned.
Heartbroken, the schoolteacher died, and young girls in her town who were eager to avoid a similar fate took to placing love padlocks on one of the city’s bridges. The tale was revived and popularized in the latter half of the 20th century by one of Serbia’s most famous female poets, Desanka Maksimovic, in a poem titled “Prayer for Love.”
For Francesco and Caroline Castillo, who looked out at the Seine and the tourist boats plying their way as they put on their lock, it was a simple, sincere gesture affirming their love for each other. Both doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., they had put off their honeymoon for a year and now, finally were tossing their key into the Seine. “It’s about the moment, locking them together,” said Ms. Castillo, adding, “We hope to come back in a few years and find it.”
It turns out that is not too likely. The sheer weight of the locks causes the bridge’s metal panels to sag eventually, and then the city replaces them with new panels, as new love so often replaces old.
The old panels are kept, with locks still attached, but stored in a warehouse — with no view of the Seine.
-
Lock and ban.
-
-
Those love locks I see them everywhere not just Paris. Seoul N tower, Guam island have them too and recently, singapore's copycat version at Central clarke quay.
-
Originally posted by Phoebe 75:
Those love locks I see them everywhere not just Paris. Seoul N tower, Guam island have them too and recently, singapore's copycat version at Central clarke quay.
Ohh..they have it here at Clake Quay ehh...? Few cities in Russia and China have it too.
Professing your love in lock and keys is so mainstream, where is the originality of romance?
-
-
They call it a life sentence sometimes.
-
'Locks of love' bridge in Paris evacuated after railing collapse
Sometimes too much love can be a bad thing as Paris discovered on Sunday when thousands of "locks of love" attached to a footbridge caused part of the railing to collapse, forcing an evacuation.
Thousands of lovers from across the world visit the Pont des Arts every year and seal their love by attaching a lock carrying their names to its railing and throwing the key in the Seine.
But police were forced to hurriedly usher visitors off the footbridge in central Paris early Sunday evening after 2.4 metres (yards) of railing collapsed under the weight of the collected tokens of affection.
"The bridge was immediately evacuated and closed," local police told AFP.
An architect and local officials rushed to the site and a barrier put in place to stop further access. Police said the bridge would be re-opened by Monday.
The Pont des Arts crosses the French capital's river Seine just in front of the Louvre museum and is known the world over for its "locks of love".
The phenomenon has become something of a headache for officials in the City of Light, who would prefer something that poses fewer problems of security and aesthetics.
Two young Americans living in Paris have gathered thousands of signatures for a petition they launched in March calling for the locks to be removed, saying they are eyesores and cause damage to the bridges.
The locks only appeared on the Pont des Arts in 2008, having already become a craze in Germany, Russia, China and particularly Italy.
Today, the full 150 metre length of the footbridge is covered in the locks, and the practice has spread to other bridges around the capital.
Forty locks were also recently removed from the Eiffel Tower.
-
'Locks of love' Paris bridge reopens after railing collapse
A bridge in Paris famed for the thousands of "locks of love" that controversially line its railings has reopened after it was urgently closed when part of a padlock-laden barrier collapsed, authorities said Monday.
Thousands of couples from across the world visit the picturesque Pont des Arts every year and seal their love by attaching a padlock to its railing and throwing the key into the Seine.
But this tradition has become controversial as critics say it causes damage to the structure in central Paris.
On Sunday evening, police were forced to hurriedly evacuate the footbridge after two and a half metres (eight feet) of railing collapsed under the weight of the tokens of affection.
The city council said Monday that the bridge that spans the Seine near the Louvre museum reopened later on Sunday evening.
"The two railings that collapsed were temporarily replaced by wooden planks," Bruno Julliard, a deputy mayor in charge of cultural affairs, told AFP.
The "locks of love" phenomenon has spread to other bridges and structures in the capital since they first made an appearance in 2008, to the joy of some and consternation of others who see them as eyesores and security risks.
Today, the 155-metre-long Pont des Arts is completely covered in locks.
Forty locks were also recently removed from the Eiffel Tower.
More than 7,400 people have signed a petition launched by two American Paris-lovers in March calling for the locks to be removed from the Pont des Arts.
Julliard, who has been tasked with finding a solution to the problem, said the latest incident "reinforces our conviction that there is a real necessity to find an alternative."
-
lol collapsed love life. irony lah.
-
You know how heavy metal is?