At night, they remove the padlocks of lovers from the Pont des Arts: these Parisians fight to chase away street vendors

Plusieurs riverains tentent depuis des années de mettre fin à la tradition des cadenas sur le pont des Arts MAXPPP – Aurelien Morissard

À Paris, plusieurs riverains enlèvent régulièrement les cadenas présents sur le pont des Arts. Une action dans le but de protéger le patrimoine parisien.

For years, tourists passing through the capital have sealed their love on the legendary Pont des Arts. However, this tradition does not please everyone. Already in 2015, the city of Paris removed the padlocks for security reasons and signs have since been installed. Glass windows have even replaced the fences, yet couples continue to perpetuate this custom.

To counter this, some local residents will regularly remove them once night falls, out of love for heritage. "It’s a healthy and simple initiative, like picking up waste outside your home", confides one of them to Parisian. For many minutes, using an iron bar or a hammer, the latter sets about removing all the bicycle locks present on the lamp posts.< /p>

"They were violent and sent my tools into the Seine"

"True romanticism is the love of heritage. It’is not following popular trends that are a little stupid, nasty and ugly", justifies this Parisian who has already experienced several altercations with hawkers of padlocks on the street . "They were violent and sent my tools into the Seine", he remembers.

The next day, however, the sellers will reinstall tourist-trap padlocks to make passers-by believe that they are not the first to hang them, and thus convince them to accept them. buy theirs, for around seven euros each. "It’s raining locks !" ("It's raining padlocks"), concludes this local resident, still at the microphone of the Parisien.