Love Padlocks--Paris

This is taken from the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge. Attached to the bridge are many hundreds, if not thousands of padlocks, each bearing at least the initials of the couple who locked it and (if they followed proper procedure) threw the key in the river. The practice began here in 2008 (according to the Wiki article article on the bridge. But the ritual is much broader, as you can read here in English, ranging from Europe to at least Canada south to Uruguay.

In the background is the Pont Neuf, the eastern end of the Ile de la Cité, the Tour Saint Jacques on the left, and the rear spire of Notre Dame cathedral on the far right.

We were returning late in the afternoon, from two exhibitions at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, on drawings by Rembrandt and his followers, and photographs of trees in France from the 19th century from around 1980--a somewhat strange combination--definitely interesting, but somewhat lacking in artistic quality.