An endangered small job in Paris, love locks seller.

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The love locks sellers appeared in 2008 in Paris on the «Pont des Arts». It is again an Indian business, this time targeting tourists. The «Pont des Arts» was initially the first iron bridge built in France by order of Napoleon. It was a footbridge crossing the Seine between the French Academy and the Museum of Arts, i.e. the Louvre. It had benches and was decorated by orange trees. Napoleon was finding it ugly and lacking of robustness, and decided that this kind of bridge architecture was just good enough for England where they were lacking of good stones for bridges, but unwelcomed in France, and it has been the only iron bridge in France during decades. Not completely wrong when it comes to robustness, the bridge had to be closed in 1970 and was rebuilt in the early 1980’s on the same design but with less piers to align it on the «Pont Neuf», making the perspective view less ugly. When the love locks started to accumulate on the «Pont des Arts» and the «Pont de l’Archevêché», a new controversy appeared, telling that these locks were making these bridges looking ugly. It is an opinion that I do not share. Seen from the bridges, the accumulation of locks was certainly ugly. But seen from the bank during the night, the locks shining under the lights of the city were making these bridges looking magical. In 2014 a grid on the «Pont des Arts» felt down under the weight of the locks. Not really dangerous for the bridge, the locks being not on the main handrail, but it inflamed the controversy. A «F*ck Love» group offered on a website and on FB to cut the love locks for a few euros, approximately the same price than they were sold. A good symbiosis could have occured between the sellers and the cutters in the best interest of both parties, but it did not, and a few fights were recorded between sellers and cutters. In June 2015 the grids were removed by the city on the «Pont des Arts» and replaced by glass panels. The same was done on the «Pont de l’Archevêché» in November 2016. There are still two footbridges where a love lock can be put in Paris, but only one in the touristic center favorable for the business of a love lock seller, the «Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor» (previously called «Passerelle Solférino»), between the Museum of Orsay and the garden of the Tuileries. There was only one seller on the bridge last Sunday, maybe the last Indian seller in Paris. They have to face now a harsh competition : all the booksellers near the Seine are selling locks, and the price of their locks, 3 or 4 Euros, is displayed (the price of a lock sold on the bridge depends of the faces of the buyers). Besides, the locksmiths around are offering a real engraving to the lovers, instead of a marker pen. It is really an endangered job. While this small job is disappearing, the city of Paris organized last May an operation that could leave a bitter taste to these sellers, a public auction of some grids or pieces of grids full of love locks removed from the bridges. The profits were given to 3 charities helping immigrants, and they were huge : the auction brought back 250 000 Euros !