- Title: FRANCE-LOVE LOCKS On a Paris bridge, the end of a love too heavy to bear
- Date: 1st June 2015
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - SEPTEMBER 24, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRANSPARENT PANELS REPLACING GRILLS VARIOUS OF COUPLE POSING, LOCKING PADLOCK, KISSING AND SENDING PADLOCK AWAY
- Embargoed: 16th June 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAE98KXU30WZBMOJIQF3PTTUUUL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Workmen in Paris Monday (June 1) began pulling off hundreds of thousands of padlocks attached by lovers to the "Pont des Arts" bridge, afraid the sheer weight of the romantic tokens was putting the 19th century structure at risk.
The pedestrian bridge has become a shrine for amorous tourists and Parisians alike, who seek to immortalise their love by leaving an initialled padlock attached to its metallic grid railings.
But Paris' city hall considers it's too dangerous to keep the locks, after a part of the bridge laden with padlocks collapsed onto the walkway last summer.
A statement from the city government said the padlocks spoil the aesthetics of the bridge and underlined the potential risk for additional railing collapses into the Seine river below.
But tourists did not feel the same way on Monday morning while workers were removing entire metallic panels, heavy with padlocks, from the bridge.
Australian tourist Wang Xu said he was shocked that the padlocks were thrown away and that he hoped they could be put in a museum instead.
"I heard that it's just going to be like thrown out. I think they should at least put it in a museum actually put it somewhere so people can see it because I think they are just going to put it in the bin," Xu said.
A couple of tourists from Washington D.C. turned up unaware of the padlock ban, and said they were disappointed.
"Yes it's very sad. We came hoping to be able to put it in the middle but now we find out it's going to be illegal so we are going to put it right there," Catherine Hominage said.
The existing railings would be initially replaced with panels covered in street art and later this year by plexiglass, deputy Paris mayor Bruno Julliard said in a statement.
This would prevent new locks from being put on the bridge.
A British architect based in Paris, Colin Kovacs, proposed a plan to erect new railings with gaps on each bar that would allow new locks to be removed. The city could recycle the steel for another use, such as a sculpture.
"The thing is it's quite nice and quite romantic that people can put locks on the bridge so even with my design you can actually put the locks there and they can be taken away and maybe the metal can be used for some other purpose." Kovacs said.
But there is no need for tourists to worry as ten other bridges in Paris respect the same "love lock" tradition and lovers will still find a way to profess their love in the City of Lights... at least for a while. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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