Modenus At Large - Event CoverageTravel and design
Valentines Day – Padlocks, Keys and a Bridge in Paris
I came across this while in Paris for Maison et Object. The Pont des Arts is one of a number of love bridges in Europe where couples inscribe their names on a padlock, attach it to the bridge and throw the key into the river below.
There is so much to tell about this bridge. The City of Paris occasionally removes the locks overnight only for them to be replaced almost as swiftly. There is an on-line service which will engrave and place your lock for you. This is the bridge where Amelie discovers her surge and love for mankind in the classic film which, I suspect, is widely viewed by the Modenus community. It also appears in the first, less awful, Sex and the City film and the end of The Bourne Identity. But all of these are distractions.
Really, alone in Paris, what I found occupying my thoughts, was this – ‘Is love a padlock or a key’?
There is something delicious about that moment of commitment, the abandonment of all else, but is that really love? Or does true love lie in the liberation of knowing and exploring. Is it about having the confidence to trust your true love, unlocked, to be themselves?
Is love a freedom?
Sorry to go a bit Carry Bradshaw on you all. And happy Valentines day!