City of Love
Many couples who visit France’s capital prefer to walk along the Pont des Arts (the Bridge of Arts), which has bridge rails that were originally filled with love locks, or take a trip on the Bateaux-Mouches along the Seine to admire the scenery.
In fact, the lovers’ bridge became so heavy that the Paris authorities had to mobilize personnel in 2018 to cut off part of the love locks that were weighing down both sides of the bridge!
According to Paris Deputy Mayor Bruno Julliard, lovers can still exchange vows in locations other than the Arts Bridge. Paris will always be the city of love. The Pont des Arts bridge is still a famous landmark. Standing on the bridge, one can see the Louvre Museum and the iconic spires of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris…
Forget the trouble; there’s still the experience of sitting on the train and seeing the countryside, which is also quite interesting. It takes about an hour to cover the gorgeous 13-kilometer stretch of the river that runs through Paris. People sitting in boats, walking on bridges, or along the banks frequently wave to one another and even exchange warm grins.
Paris is as closely linked to the river as a kid is to its mother. The river has the same name as an ancient Roman goddess. According to tradition, the goddess Séquana (Seine in French) held all the powers of the rivers and could cure all human maladies. Is it because water is the very foundation of life?
What else can be said about the Seine River? It is the heart and spirit of France’s capital, and many poets, painters, and musicians find inspiration here. Guillaume Apollinaire said to be borrowed the river’s Mirabeau Bridge to celebrate an unfulfilled love. Louis Aragon, another poet, began writing poetry at the age of 18 with a sonnet about the Seine River. In his song-turned-poem, Jacques Prévert said that the Seine River became famous because it flowed through Paris. The river relaxes the landscape of France’s capital.
Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet and Edouard Manet were attracted by the river’s leisurely, meandering flow and used it in their paintings. And who can forget the song “La Seine” composed by Matthieu Chedid and Sean Lennon, recently performed by vocalist Vanessa Paradis… Is this so?
If anyone asks, which vision of Paris would you opt to keep? It’s difficult to answer. If possible, I would keep this city in my thoughts. Everything in the capital city of light is lovely, harmonic, and quite flawless! This is allegedly to be the reason why the German Fascist general couldn’t take the thought of blowing up this occupied city before the German Fascists succumbed and surrendered to the Allied troops in WWII…
