Paris wants to replace the “lock of love” by “selfies” – Le Monde

Paris wants to replace the "lock of love" by "selfies" – Le Monde

The mayor of Paris launched Monday, Aug. 11, a communication campaign to encourage lovers to replace the locks on Paris bridges fixed by selfies. The idea is “to offer the alternative of couples selfies padlocks, explaining that they weigh too heavy for Parisian bridges” , says the Mayor. Lovers can “immortalize their love online rather than on the bridges of Paris” .

stickers are already placed on the bridges to suggest lovers realize these photographic self-portraits with their phones and post them on a website specially created for the occasion – lovewithoutlocks.paris.fr – or on Twitter with the keyword sharp #lovewithoutlocks (“love without lock”)

“This is a first part of a more comprehensive action plan” says the mayor of Paris. “It is not on the logic of verbalization,” she says. “This will simplify things, it’s the depth discussions we have with the Buildings of France to replace the grids by facilities that do not allow to hang padlocks” .

“locks of love” that lovers are set along the parapet of a bridge to seal their union, before throwing the key into the river, have appeared in Paris in 2008. A roasting pan from the famous Pont des Arts collapsed in June under the weight of thousands of these locks, causing the evacuation of this pedestrian bridge spanning the Seine near the Louvre.

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