Love Locks Bridges of Paris: Yes or No?


 

Love locks in Paris pose a tricky conundrum.

Paris is the eternal city for lovers. Year after year, it’s a top destination for couples, proposals, engagement photo shoots and those looking to reignite that spark several years into a relationship or to celebrate a special anniversary. If you visit Paris en amoureux for a romantic weekend, this clichéd romantic landmark may well end up tempting you too. However, is it just a cheesy place to declare your love or a meaningful place to express your love?

So let us find out if there’s any harm behind these love locks!

Love padlocks bridges Rome

Photo credit Sylwia Bartyzel sourced from Unsplash

History

Many of you may wonder about what, if any, tradition are connected to the love locks bridge and when did it really start?

One theory is that the answer can be found in an ill-fated Serbian love story that goes back a 100 years!

Love padlocks on the butchers bridge – By Petar Milošević / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

The story goes something like this: in the spa town of Vrnjacka Banja, a school teacher named Nada fell in love with Relja, her officer beau. Since it was during the First World War, Relja had to sign up to be a soldier and go fight in Greece. The young lovers were separated as a result. Eventually, Relja fell in love with another woman in Corfu, breaking off his engagement to Nada. She never recovered from this devastating blow and died from heartbreak!

Other young women from Vrnjacka Banja understandably wanted to protect their own budding relationships from meeting a similar fate. Hence, they got in the habit of writing their names or the couple’s names on a padlock and fixing it on the railings of the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet.

Central Vrnjačke Banja, the ill-fated lovers’ town. Photo credit Wiki Commons.

More recently, elsewhere in Europe, love locks started cropping up on bridges and railings near famous landmarks in the 2000s.

The Ponte Milvio in Rome was a particularly popular destination, which can be explained by the  2006 book ‘I Want You’ by Italian author Federico Moccia. Gracing the big screen one year later with a film adaptation, this book made love locks quite popular.

To date,  lover are always looking for a sign, or more of a gesture to seal their love with hope that it lasts for ever. However, whether their love last or not is subject for discussion. Love locks the bridge is one manifestation that people have used to try and demonstrate their love towards each other. These bridges have over time become tourist attractions and famous dating site. More often than note you will find couples taking photos and kissing around the bridges.  

Parisian Love Locks Bridges

Back in Paris, however, these Love locks are known as les Les cadenas d’amour. The custom, like in other large European cities, is to attach a padlock to a public property in the city, and then throw away the key, thus fixing the couple’s love for all eternity.

Love Locks Bridge – by Dennis Jarvis – Wikimedia Commons

As these locks are often attached to Parisian bridges such as the Pont-Neuf or the Pont des Arts, it is commonplace for couples to throw away the key into the river below that the bridge connects.

Very often these locks have the couples initials or a meaningful date either scratched into the metal with a sharp object, such as a key, or scrawled on with a permanent marker or felt tip pen.

The bridges are now considered romantic venue for lovers. It is a common practice for lovers to hang around the bridges making their marks of eternal love which is romantic and sentimental. 

More professional options are offered to have one’s love lock formally engraved. An option which perhaps appeals to couples really invested in this particular project.

We never really want to think about the end of a love story but it does pose understandable problems for those locked on declarations of love.

Certain exes may want their now tarnished romantic souvenir removed, feeling uncomfortable that a reminder of this past affair is still out there in Paris for all to see. Whilst perhaps not as expensive and painful as removing the tattoo of an ex-lover’s name, there is still a plane ticket and heavy duty metal cutter shears to purchase!

Perhaps this is something to consider – should you and your chéri ever part ways, how would you feel?

The Appeal of Love Locks

love_locks_couple
Here a pair of Lovers steal a kiss on the Pont des Arts, Photo credit: Discover Walks.

I can understand the appeal of the love locks. The backdrop of Paris is enough to make even the most secondary of suitors look like the ideal beau and the city of lights can make your trip all the more romantic!

Strolling through the city, the architecture and culture both lend themselves to romance:

You might walk hand in hand along the Seine as the sun fades to that golden hour light. Stopping for a picnic on the cobblestone banks of the river is the stage in your soirée – someone effortlessly producing a bottle of chilled wine, a corkscrew and snacks from a bag.

no-romance

A young couple attaching a Love Lock. Photo credit, Discover Walks.

Then walking back over one of the many bridges, it’s difficult to resist the urge to embrace your significant other overlooking the most clichéd romantic views Paris has to offer.

You would be hard pushed not to notice the love locks attached to some of the bridge railings. And even if you didn’t come prepared, there is more than likely someone nearby is ready to sell you the relevant material so you can leave your mark.

Love Bridge – by The Promenader – Wikimedia Commons Paris has a City Hall which takes decisions concerning urban development, public spaces and the like. As you might imagine the love locks have been somewhat of a headache for them. On one hand, they took the decision not to fine tourists or vendors, which could certainly create the unfortunate impression of the bureaucrats being anti-romance.

At the same time, they can’t really just sit there doing nothing as these heritage sites can be harmed by these heavy, rust prone locks.

Things escalated when nearly 2 and a half metres of the Pont des Arts bridge fell into the Seine in 2014. The previous summer part of the parapet had collapsed into the river too. Pont des Arts is the bridge best known for its love locks, so this was a big set back for the bridge due to the weight of the locks.

Authorities claimed that the last thing they wanted to do was to ‘stigmatise’ young lovers in the city. That said, they were concerned for public safety, both on the bridge and in the river for the bateaux mouches passing underneath it.

Lovers putting their padlocks in Paris as a grand gesture embodying their eternal love. In fact, one couple’s love lock isn’t going to do much harm. The problem arises when the trend goes viral and more and more tourists head for the bridges to do what’s popular. But how many actually do it? Let’s take a look at the numbers!

nd_locks
Notre Dame watching over Paris love locks on the Pont de l’Archevêché

In 2015, just days before the eventual removal of all the weighty symbols on the bridges, the city counted 1 million padlocks amounting to 45 tonnes of metal on the bridges. As a result, love locks were also removed from the Pont de l’Archeveche, near Notre Dame cathedral in the same preservation effort.

I love wandering through Paris taking pictures on street corners and even close-ups of individual details. These often include street art or graffiti. The infamous Street Artist Invader (who specialises in gaming inspired mosaic aliens), has left some of the prettiest pictures plastered on traditional Parisian buildings, often near street signs.

locks_security
Peeping through the Love Locks at a bateau mouche. Photo credit: Discover Walks.

I must admit, in my Instagram  repertoire hailing back to 2013, close ups of Space Invaders and love locks featured heavily. Much like other ‘add ons’ or community projects or fringe arty projects, these love locks can be really pretty in the right place and lighting.

They negate the need to know how to take a good photo. With an iPhone or camera, you simply focus in on the love locks in the foreground and the Parisian paysage behind takes on a romantic soft-focus blur and, voilà – looks like you know what you’re doing with your photographic composition. Aesthetically and certainly in terms of what they represent, only very few people would consider themselves anti-love lock hardliners.

Some people might even argue that after a decade or more of adorning the city that love locks are themselves a romantic tradition to preserve in the city today.

No Love Locks Paris

But can a mass movement slip seamlessly into a historical heritage and especially, if it may essentially cause some harm?

This is the question the movement ‘No Love Locks Paris pose to everyone on the Internet and beyond. They use the tagline: “Free your love. Save our Bridges.

Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

I think this succinct motto is smart. It’s a double whammy of short three word sentences. The implication is that love isn’t something to lock on to a bridge, showing the darker side of a jealous or untrustworthy psychology that wants to ‘lock’ the love away somehow, hoping it will never change or leave, but fearing the worst.

An unhappy Parisian waiter. Photo credit, Discover Walks.

Some psychiatrists would argue that this is the very foundation and attraction of romantic love; the fact that we can never be 100% sure that an affair, or even long term commitment or marriage will last a lifetime. The delicate and uncertain nature of love, is perhaps why we value it so highly.

The ‘No Love Locks Paris’ awareness campaign got its fair share of press in international publications such as Forbes and The Guardian. Whether tourists will respond to Parisians’ pleas is yet to be seen.

While it is may seem a romantic gesture, the locks have brought up a controversial discussions surrounding attaching love padlocks on the bridge. Over the years, the weights of these locks have caused damages of these bridges. ln 2014 the Pont des Art bridge had to undergo repair after it collapsed under the heavy weight of the locks. In 2015, millions of locks were removed and replaced with metal grill to prevent further damages.

The art of attaching locks on the bridge is a romantic gesture but the potential damage it might cause has proven to be detrimental. This act poses potential threat to the pedestrians, the bridge and the surrounding environment. 

I recommend an alternative to the love locks that is more friendly and does not cause any potential harm our environment. However, visit this love locks bridges and take a photo, make memories and let your love last. 

Alternatives to Love Locks

I would be in favour of other romantic traditions taking the lead. After all, in today’s world, if we want to continue to travel and enjoy the perks of millennial culture materialism to which we have become so accustomed, something’s got to give.

This starts as simply as taking your own water bottle with you, showing a certain amount of respect for the local or holiday environment. It is also appreciating that in cities, there are just so many of us, that it’s a struggle to keep them clean if we don’t all pitch in.

If we turn to sustainable souvenirs and worthy romance, why not leave something beautiful but just for a day?

Love Bridge – by Poulpy – Wikimedia Commons

You could leave a beautiful quotation, song lyric or verse of poetry which is meaningful to both of you in chalk on a paving stone, much like the street artists in Beaubourg near the Centre Pompidou.

There is a beautiful wall in a small Parisian park just behind metro Abbesses where you could take a selfie in front of the “mur des je t’aime“.  This installation is composed on 40 metres with ‘I love you’ written repeatedly in 250 languages.

Nearby in Montmartre, arguably the most romantic quartier of Paris and a village within the city, there are some incredible places for your romance. La maison Rose has some exceptional photo opportunities in the street sweeping down to its beautiful facade.

La Maison Rose in Montmartre village. Photo credit, Anyul Rivas – Wikimedia Commons.

You may enjoy yourself here a little more if you avoid ‘peak hours’ or do it visit outside high season. Although if you’re turning downhill from the Place du Tertre, this stretch will seem positively laid back.

Walking only a little way down the butte and hill streets to the 9th arrondissement, you will find a museum celebrating romance tucked away on the rue Chaptal. The Musée de la Vie Romantique celebrates romantic love with an entire private mansion dedicated to this effect.

In its permanent collection, you can admire the works of romantic painters. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions, for instance, there’s one on called Héroïnes romantiques, on until September 2022.

Musée de la vie Romantique. Photo credit, Discover Walks.

The architecture of the museum is very special. Perfectly set off in pretty pastels, the museum and its gardens are especially inviting in late summer and early spring.

The museum of romantic life reopened its doors to the public on June 22nd 2019 after 8 months of renovation work, primarily to help with accessibility.

I have been a fan of this particular museum for a long time, and found out about the planned temporary closure when looking for reception venues. The hopeless romantic that I am, the poetry of celebrating a marriage at the Musée de la vie Romantique was appealing. If the idea captures your imagination, you can contact the museum directly to discuss private tour possibilities.

My last idea for an alternative to the love locks in Paris is Ice cream Island, better known as Île Saint Louis.

L'île Saint Louis à Paris

L’île Saint Louis à Paris by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra – Flickr

This is one of the most picturesque places in central Paris. Set in the Seine, it is surrounded by soaring cinematic architecture. Unlike other areas beloved by tourists, if you visit Île Saint Louis on a weekday when it isn’t especially hot or sunny, you might just luck out and have the place to yourselves.

On arrival, take a moment to wander the island’s small streets. You don’t really need the help of a map or any special directions as you should stumble upon these delicious dairy delicacies all on your own.

However, if you would like a nudge in the right direction, Berthillon can be found located at: 29-31 rue Saint-Louis en l’île 75004.

Whatever you choose to do on your romantic city break in Paris, don’t put a lock on a bridge or heritage monument. If the Mairie de Paris, the administration authorities of Paris, ends up putting up the Love Lock metal trees discussed, by all means hang it on one of them. But I haven’t seen any yet at the time of writing.

Even if you don’t risk a fine or any official discipline locking your love in the city, it’s not a good look and does a lot of damage. It also costs the city money and you might not feel as great about it in a few years.

I would encourage you to make your own romantic plans in Paris, which is as individual to your relationship.

Original text by Elisabeth Marcadet, Updated by Kate Reeves , Farah in June 2022 and Felix in May 2023.

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