LOVE Locks

It seemed the passions of the past had been swept away but was there still a way back?

Coral came out of the Louvre Palace, dodging the traffic as she crossed the busy road that ran parallel to the river Seine – and jerked to a halt. Had she got the wrong bridge, she wondered, frowning as she mounted the shallow steps that led up to the wide footbridge. No. She recognized the high dome of the Institut de France on the far bank.

But where were the padlocks – the so-called love locks – that had festooned every inch of the bridge’s railings like a shaggy metal wall hanging?

Gone!

Stunned, she thought back to how she and her husband Mike had reaffirmed their love for one another 10 years ago on this very bridge, with their own padlock.

They’d come out of the Louvre just as she had today. They’d crossed the road hand in hand, heading for the Seine, and had been amazed, then delighted, on seeing the hundreds – no, thousands – of padlocks that hung from the railings of the Pont des Arts.

‘Couples write their names on the padlock and maybe a message too,’ a passer-by stopped to explain. ‘They attach it to the railings and throw the key into the river.’

‘Oh, how lovely!’

Coral breathed.

Mike drew her close, wrapping her in his arms. ‘What say you and I get one of those padlocks?’

‘But we’ve been married 20 years. We’ve got two teenage kids,’ Coral laughed.