Promenade on the Pont des Arts, Paris

3 October 2012 / No Comments

I often go to this beautiful bridge as I find it peaceful and quite inspiring therefore, appeasing.

The original Ponts des Arts was built under the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte and finished in 1804. It was the first metallic bridge in Paris and actually, at one point, there was a toll to walk across it. It links the 6th arrondissement to the 1st (from the Institut de France to the Palais du Louvre (actually called Palais des Arts under the First Empire)).

It bears no traffic apart from the human steps that cross it everyday.

It is my favorite bridge in Paris because it is the bridge of all hopes.

It is the bridge of love.

There are literally hundreds of little padlocks inscribed with, often, the initials or names of the two lovers who attached them there. From Claire & Pierre’s promise of eternal devotion, Laurent and Stephanie’s hopes of reconciliation to Anais & Jean-Philippe’s first date on the bridge crowned by a personalized padlock of love. They have all locked their love into Paris.

I sat there for a whole morning recently, watching people go by and reading my book and taking photos. Inside the throbbing capital that Paris is there are places like this, where the water calms our fears below our feet and the rapture of Paris envelopes us in, losing us in time.

Why not take a trip there yourself next time you are in Paris and attach a little lock to the bridge, engraved with a message of love? Decorated with a pretty colored ribbon or just painted in a beautiful color?

I took dozens of pictures of all these little locks but couldn’t bring myself to publish the detailed shots of them. They are private, somebody’s story. So here’s a photo that I took but then played with a little, to share with you what is only meant to be seen. The rest is their stories.

Love from Paris, to you all xxxx