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Pont des Artes love locks removed after Parisians lose affection for eyesore Pont des Arts love locks removed after Parisians lose affection for eyesore
(about 1 hour later)
As metaphors go in the city of love, the sight of 45 tons of “love locks” piled high on the back of a flatbed truck takes some beating – but Parisians had fallen out of love with the symbols of eternal affection that had weighed down the bridge over the Seine in the centre of the French capital. As far as Paris and padlocks are concerned, it’s the end of the affair.
On Monday morning municipal workers removed section after section of padlocks from the Pont des Artes, a victory for residents who called the mass of metal a rusting eyesore. There were also fears the weight could cause a collapse. The French capital has had a definitive falling out with the estimated 1m “love-locks” that it says are threatening some of the city’s most historic monuments.
The bridge, which will be closed during the first week of June, had to be evacuated last year after part of the railing collapsed under the weight of the love locks. We still hope that Paris will remain the capital of love and romance
The city council had said the many thousands of padlocks, engraved with the initials of lovers, were causing “long-term heritage degradation and a risk for visitors’ security”. On Monday, workers armed with bolt cutters closed off the celebrated Pont des Arts over the Seine, where a railing collapsed last year under the weight of so many locks, and began breaking hearts around the world.
“It’s the end of the padlocks,” Bruno Julliard, the deputy Paris mayor said in a statement. Parisian officials have had a turbulent relationship with the trend since it hit Paris in 2008. When the first dewy-eyed couples began declaring their undying love by writing their initials or names on a padlock, attaching it to a monument and throwing the keys into the River Seine, it seemed relatively harmless.
“They spoil the aesthetics of the bridge, are structurally bad for it and can cause accidents,” he added. Since then, however, the locks have grown like metal barnacles over bridge railings, palisades, and parapets. Some have even been spotted on the Eiffel Tower.
Yet a couple of tourists from Washington DC turned up unaware of the padlock ban. Lisa Anselmo and Lisa Taylor Huff, two Americans who live in Paris, had started a campaign to persuade the city authorities to clamp down on the locks. Their petition currently has more than 10,400 signatures.
“We came with the idea of putting a lock but we found out it’s closed and illegal now – so we are just going to put it here at the very end of the bridge so no one can see,” tourist Cathy Hominage said to Reuters TV. Anselmo told journalists she was thrilled by the decision to remove the padlocks.
The tradition for couples to say je t’aime to each other – by scoring their initials on padlocks before throwing the keys into the river – is a recent one, only beginning in 2008 and following similar trends in cities in Italy and Asia. “I hope this is the beginning of the end for this destructive trend,” she said.
However, for some, the love was lost for the metallic display of affection and the “no love locks campaign” was launched early last year by two Americans living in Paris, who were shocked at the extent of what they saw as a rusting eyesore across the city. Local officials had tried to persuade visiting lovers to take selfies and post a digital declaration of love online, but were forced to admit the campaign was a failure.
The full 150-metre shrine covered in locks of devotion had belonged to perhaps the most picturesque bridge in the city of romance, and overlooks the Eiffel Tower. Paris city hall has denied being a killjoy. “This phenomenon gives rise to two problems: a lasting degradation of the heritage of Paris and a risk to the safety of visitors: Parisians and tourists,” it said in a statement.
The metal grilles on the side of the 19th century structure are to be replaced with panels covered in street art and later this year by plexiglass, to prevent people attaching locks. Bruno Julliard, a deputy mayor, said he hoped to kiss goodbye to such an “ugly” trend.
It is estimated 700,000 padlocks are now attached to locations across the French capital, with the weight potentially putting the structure of the city’s architecture at risk. “We will cut away almost a million locks weighing 45 tonnes,” Julliard said of the Pont des Arts. He warned that similar measures would be taken on the nearby Pont de l’Archevêché, behind Notre-Dame cathedral, another stop on the path of true lock-love.
The Pont des Arts will be closed all this week while the locks are removed. To prevent their return, the authorities plan to install padlock-proof glass panels, which will also make graffiti easier to remove, after the summer.
“We still hope that Paris will remain the capital of love and romance,” Julliard added.