Love Locked on a Paris Bridge

Love eternal locked on Pont des Arts (credit:Maxppp)

Le Pont des Arts in Paris has been invaded by “love locks”

The most romantic bridge in Paris, Le Pont des Arts also known as the Passerelle des Arts is the target of love lockers. Built as a toll bridge in 1803, it was the city’s first iron bridge and lying close to the heart of France’s prestigious Academy of Arts and Letters, is celebrated by poets and artists for its delicate ironwork and beautiful Seine views.

Today however more than 1,600 different sized and shaped “love locks” cling to its railings the oldest apparently dated 2008.

Lovers from all over the world, aware of the bridge’s romancing traditions, have padlocked engraved metal souvenirs of their mutual enchantment, on the Pont des Arts railings before hurling the key into the Seine.

The fashion is puzzling Paris City Hall. Bertrand Delanoë the capital’s Socialist mayor says the trend: “raises questions about the preservation of our heritage”, adding that “the locks will have to be removed in time. We are working on an alternative, why not some sort of metal tree to support these locks,” he said.

A Le Post reporter who visited the bridge, connecting the Louvre with St-Germain des Prés, noted that names on the locks were from all over the world: Masatoshi and Ayako, Markus and Alicia, Bikounet Shimonnett Stefan und Constance Gent and Maria.