Lovelocked in Paris
Monday 20 August 2012
In the New York Times Agnes Poirier writes about a social phenomenon I noticed in Paris—lovers writing their names on padlocks, snapping the locks on the balustrades of bridges over the Seine, and throwing the keys into the river.
“The fools! They haven’t understood a thing about love, have they?” was the conclusion recently of a 23-year-old waiter at Panis, a cafe on the Left Bank with a view over Notre-Dame. At the heart of love à la française lies the idea of freedom. To love truly is to want the other free, and this includes the freedom to walk away. Love is not about possession or property. Love is no prison where two people are each other’s slaves. Love is not a commodity, either. Love is not capitalist, it is revolutionary. If anything, true love shows you the way to selflessness.
I saw these padlocks on the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, a foot bridge that crosses the Seine. The locks despoil the view of the river and the Pont Royal of 1689.
The locks remind me of graffiti—a selfish indulgence that ignores the harm it does to everyone else’s enjoyment of the place. Harrumph.
My daughters enjoying the autumn sunshine on the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor—an elegant and delightful place to stroll across and enjoy the views of the city and its river. After visiting the Musée d’Orsay we walked across the bridge on our way to the Jardin de Tuileries. Mmmm.
Of course I should have known that a social malignancy like this would have grown its own wikipedia page.
