Love Locks: Yes or No?

What started as an innocent symbol of love has now turned into a full-blown controversy.

Lovers, couples, sweethearts, and newlyweds expressing their eternal love in the world’s most romantic city have been leaving padlocks on the Pont des Arts since 2008. The tradition started way before the newly minted Paris one, 100 years ago in a Serbian spa town during WW I.

In recent years the love lock phenomenon has over spilled to other bridges in Paris, as the Pont des Arts has run out of room, with the city frequently cutting off the locks, only to have new ones immediately replace them

As much as Paris caters to tourists, locals are getting fed up with the locks. Many feel tourists are abusing their rights and marring the bridges.

Two American expats, Lisa Anselmo and Lisa Taylor Huff, have taken tackled the problem head on by starting up No Love Locks, a movement to ban them. Huff and Anselmo state that the locks have become a visual plague on the landscape of the city and that they are degrading and damaging the structure of the bridges, a threat to the cultural heritage. They have collected over 6800 signatures on change.org to ban the locks and have written an open letter to the new mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. The movement has gained tons of international press including articles in The New York Times, Yahoo, and The Huffington Post.

Although I have not yet signed the petition, I am siding with Lisa, Lisa (okay, I had to get that joke in aka Lisa, Lisa & Cult Jam from the 80s). I walk a fine line though, since I am in the tourism business and certainly don’t want do anything to discourage tourists but I feel it has gotten out of control. It’s become a new form of graffiti, with people freely putting locks wherever they want and not respecting public spaces.

I would love to have your opinion.

Click here for more about No Love Locks.

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Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

Comments

[The Bold Soul]

Thanks for your article, Richard. As one of the Deux Lisas in question, I just wanted to share that I also work in tourism, for a company who does many types of Paris city tours, but unlike some similar operators in Paris who sell tours to the "love locks bridges", none of our tours makes the locks a focal point (and this has nothing to do with my involvement with the No Love Locks campaign, either).

I think "responsible tourism" is absolutely possible both from a business perspective as well as for us as individual tourists, and actually is more profitable in the long run. If we allow tourism to dictate everything about our cities (Paris isn't the only city suffering from love locks on historic bridges and monuments), then tourism will end up destroying the very places that they allegedly support and profit from. So I think it is in our best interest, when we work in tourism, to declare that we are for any measure that keeps a city's heritage safe and protected both for today and for future generations.

Thanks for saying you're on our side and we'd like to invite you to become one of our official partners - we are in search of both associations and businesses in the tourism industry that are willing to openly say they are against this trend and for any measures that will keep the patrimoine of Paris safe. Think about it and get in touch if you're interested. :)

Lisa Taylor Huff for No Love Locks
www.NoLoveLocks.com

[Emily]

Love locks must go! They are a form of vandalism that diminish the beauty of the environment. I first saw them on a fence on the Great Wall of China in 2005, and most recently on the "new" bridge in Ronda, Spain. It saddens me to see the Pont des Arts and other bridges in Paris as well defaced with these locks. I truly am astonished to learn that some tour companies sell tours to see "love lock bridges." I think that people employed in the tourism industry would be particularly eager to eliminate this nuisance and scourge on the environment. I signed the petition early on and hope that the hard work of the two Lisas will result in a ban. (I live in California and don't know either Lisa but applaud their commitment to this project.)