News Digest

Paris pleads: Declare your #lovewithoutlocks, spare its historic bridges

Attention lovestruck tourists in Paris: Instead of proclaiming your undying love for each other like everybody else and affixing a lock to a bridge, the city is asking you to just take a selfie instead. In addition to expanding your audience with this digital proclamation of love, you’ll also spare some of the city’s iconic and historic monuments from falling into states of disrepair. On Aug. 11, the city of love began posting stickers on bridges across Paris with the hashtag #lovewithoutlocks, appealing to tourists to refrain from hanging a lock on some of their national heritage sites.

Our bridges can no longer withstand your gestures of love, set them free by declaring your love with #lovewithoutlocks.

Paris’ newly launched website

The move comes after the weight of thousands of these supposed love locks, totaling an estimated 45 tonnes, caused a section of metal mesh about 2.4 metres long to collapse on the historic Pont des Arts earlier this summer, forcing authorities to close off the footbridge for repairs.