Have you been to Pont des Arts in Paris? My few days in Paris were such a whirlwind that although we went to the Louvre twice, I think we missed the pedestrian bridge. I saw an article about it the other day with a photo of all the love padlocks that are attached to it. I have heard of love padlocks before, but I had never seen them in such mass as on the Pont des Arts in Paris. Love locks seem to be a very controversial topic due to city officials seeing them as a nuisance as well as destructive to public property. However, the romantic in me (and others apparently since they continue to appear on bridges) loves the idea of securing a love lock to a bridge and tossing the key in the water below. Of course, I think Paris is probably the most romantic place one could leave their lock, but while I was researching this I discovered there are other popular locations. Apparently a tower in Seoul and bridges in Vancouver, Cologne, Rome & Florence are also
popular spots. On one bridge in Moscow, the Luzhkov Bridge, metal trees were added to the bridge to create a more permanent place for the locks. I love the communal installation that is created out of the locks and messages left on each of them. I also love that when the Pont des Arts was cleared of all its love locks overnight Parisians and visitors started adding again, but to the
Pont de l'Archevêché.
 |
Cologne, Germany |