Keeping our love locked down in Paris.
Paris was the second stop on our whirlwind GowithOh European tour. Paris has been revered as the city of light, love, and pain au chocolats. It’s also surprisingly dirty, but we’ll get to that in another post. Copious amounts of dog poop and rambunctious tourists aside, Paris is a wonderful place for lovers. There’s the sparkling Eiffel Tower, champagne boat cruises down the Seine, and street side freshly shucked oysters that will be sure to boost your libido. While feeding each other delectable macaroons might get old, there is another way to make sure that your love is locked down forever. Literally.
Bridging the gap over the Seine river is the Pont des Arts bridge. This bridge has been the attraction for cozy lovers that want to make a true display of their unbreakable adoration for each other. After purchasing a padlock, lovers write their names or initials on it and then attach it to the bridge. If that wasn’t enduring enough, the key is then kissed by each of them and thrown down into the Seine, never to be seen again, ensuring that their lock (and love) remains forever.
Being the romantic types that we are, we knew that our first trip to Paris wouldn’t be complete unless we added our own lock of love. The love lock bridge is home to thousands of locks. We spotted locks of all shapes and sizes- huge padlocks, small diary locks, and even a bicycle lock or two. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our own lock and had to settle for the ubiquitous generic ones that are sold along the river’s edge. Our tiny lock cost us a whopping €5, but hey, it’s a small price to pay to lock down our love.
We made our way across the river trying to find the perfect spot for our symbol of amour. Check out where we put our lock in the video below.
The Pont des Arts bridge is not only for the lovers. Gypsies have been known to scour the bridge in the search for unsuspecting tourists. They will come up to you with a form that’s written in a foreign language and tell you to sign the petition, it’s for a good cause. Once you’ve given your signature they will demand money from you since as it turns out, you just signed a contract that says you’re going to donate money… to them. There’s really no way to avoid them. Just politely say that you’re not interested while keeping an eye on all of your personal belongings.
The next time you find yourself in Paris and in love, be sure to stop by the love lock bridge. We heard that it’s even more romantic and magical at night.
Have you ever been to a love lock bridge? Where in the world did you lock down your love? We’d love to hear all about it in the comment section below.
Psssss…
As winners of GowithOh’s fall competition, all of our accommodation for our trip was taken care of by them. While it may have been free, we would have paid to stay at their many apartment rentals regardless of winning the competition or not. These apartments were LEGIT. You can check out our Paris apartment rental by clicking on the picture below.
Very awesome! I am a huge love lock fan (even have a bucket list of love lock destinations around the world!)…needless to say, my trip to Paris was not complete without a stop at the bridge! So romantic. Love that you guys locked your love! Crazy about the gypsy tricks – one tried to give me a wedding band, claiming she could not keep it as she was Christian…I tried to refuse it, but she forced it into my hand, then turned around and demanded money!! While I was photographing the locks, I watched her move on and approach other tourists looking at the locks! Guess it is all part of the Paris experience!
The lock bridge is one of the many beautiful bridges that grace the Seine. When I lived there, I used to go for walks and some of my favorite walks were along and across the Seine! Glad you left your lock on the bridge – next time I am there I will go find it!
My favorite part of this whole post is Tawny’s laugh after locking the lock, hahaha. Priceless!
I’ve never locked my love to a bridge, but I suppose I probably should… Just one of those things…
Definitely! We’ve seen love locks all over the world but this was the first time we actually locked one down. 🙂
I’m all for locks and love and Paris. Would totally do this when I’m back in Paris.
Yes! You and G definitely need to lock down that love in Paris!
I love this bridge – but I never got a lock pour moi and mr o. We should!!
You and Mr.O definitely need a lock on the bridge the next time you’re there. Put it next to ours if you can find it! 🙂
i amour the LOVE locks bridge. it is so romantic for sure. as i bet you can recall, Lean & i left our lock there as a symbol of our friendship.
Love locks are great. I know that there are also love lock trees and all sorts of places for them. I saw a few in Spain, but none of them are near as popular as that one in Paris. Looks like a lovely place to put a lock.
Yeah! We love the love locks. We came across a few in South Korea but haven’t seen any of the love lock trees. We’ll have to keep an eye out for them now.
Thanks for explaining this. I saw that bridge with the locks and had no idea what it was about.
Cheers,
Michael
This reminds me of the big bridge in Cologn… I’ve never seen so many locks!
This is very interesting! You can hang the lock of love for a thousand miles away from you! read more http://yourlocklove.livejournal.com/
The bridges of Paris are being loved to death. And the Seine isn’t faring too well either…the river has become the dumping ground for all of those little padlock keys that people carelessly, thoughtlessly toss into the water after “locking” their love. Can you imagine if someone visited your hometown and started throwing bits of metal into the river?
Paris is a romantic, beautiful city. The act of polluting its monuments and its river isn’t loving, original or kind. This kind of love hurts.
There is a petition to stop this vandalism: https://www.change.org/petitio…