‘Marffy forever’: Paris ends affair with love locks, but love endures anyway

After years of warning lovers from all over the world, Paris finally did it.

The love locks are gone from the famous Pont des Arts bridge spanning the river Seine. All forty-five tons of them. For perspective, an average car weighs two tons.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, our lock was one of them.

In May last year, Mariz and I did what thousands of other couples in love do when in Paris. Eat crepes, climb the Eiffel Tower, and walk around the city all day.

And oh, visit the love bridge.


The Pont des Arts has become an attraction in itself. From afar, the railings look like a wall of multicolored metal.



That's what happens when a padlock is attached to a chain of padlocks attached to the chain link fence, from all the way back to 2008.

But up close is where it gets interesting.


You could imagine the love story of each and every padlock as you read each dedication and admire each padlock design and the occasional pictures printed on them.

You could spend hours at the bridge and never notice the time pass by.


While every message was unique with each padlock, they have one common denominator... Almost all the locks were made in China.


I guess they were not kidding when they said, "God created the world, and the rest was made in China."

It was drizzling and very cold when Mariz and I visited the love bridge.


Unlike other couples who go to Paris, we did not plan to attach our own love lock to the bridge. But not bringing a padlock with you was not a problem. Padlocks of all shapes and sizes were readily available from a dozen vendors in the area.


And so we bought one. A small gold painted padlock, of course made in China. After scribbling a few messages on it, we attached it to a chain of padlocks connected to a light pole on the fence. We figured the pole stood a better chance than the chain fence, a part of which had already partially collapsed at the time from the weight of the padlocks.



And following tradition, we then threw the keys into the Seine and sealed it with a kiss.

After the Pont des Arts, the Paris government is set to remove all the other locks on other bridges along the historic river.

The tradition may be over, but the love certainly continues. — BM, GMA News