The title of this post is a rough translation for “locks of love” in French, as today we’ll look at the phenomenon of the lovers’ locks on bridges, Parisian-style.

The pedestrian Pont des Arts bridge over the river Seine has become the place people leave their “locks of love” in Paris. Back in June, a panel that is affixed to the bridge — and is where the people affix their locks – fell off, renewing calls for the locks to be banned completely from the bridges in Paris.

When putting this post together, I ran across an article that claims that in fact the locks of love on the Pont des Arts were all removed in 2010.  But they have come back with a vengeance: even that panel collapse in June hasn’t deterred folks from continuing to put locks there; the bridge is just covered in them. I still don’t get the appeal, but somebody sure does, as it’s big business. The stalls along the Seine that have been there since forever selling old books, artwork, and — increasingly — cheap souvenirs and postcards, now sell locks. It was interesting to note that some enterprising stall owners sell not just the locks, but also the use of a magic-marker, to make it the easier for a couple to act on impulse, since the locks must be annotated with their initials or names before attaching the lock to the bridge.

BTW, the Pont des Arts bridge is not the only bridge in Paris with the locks of love. According to this article, French tour guides now claim that you put a lock with your spouse on the Pont des Arts, but a lock with your lover on the Pont de l’Archevêché. Only in France, eh?  Anyway, without knowing that story at the time,  just by chance I happened to take photos of Pont de l’Archevêché. Photos of both bridges, with their locks, are below.

As they say in France, Amusez-vous bien!

I.e., Enjoy. 😉