In Paris, Lip-Lock Okay, Love Lock No 

Paris, Aug 7: The city of Paris would prefer that couples demonstrated their love by more traditional lip-locks than putting padlocks to bridges on the serene Seine river.

That popular custom of recent origin is ruining its bridges and the city of love is making another determined effort to put an end to it.

The campaign to curb the “love lock” trend is to be launched in English and French, asking couples, who are often tourists, to declare their love in a different way, Efe news reported.

“Paris is a very romantic city, particularly around the Seine and its bridges, but we have to protect its heritage,” the French capital’s First Deputy Mayor Bruno Julliard said on Sunday.

The campaign is to pay special attention to the iconic Pont Neuf bridge; the oldest across the river Seine. In 2014, one of the fences on the Pont des Arts, the next bridge downstream from the Pont Neuf, collapsed under the weight of the love locks that had been attached to it.

Paris officials later removed 70 tonnes of padlocks and installed glass barriers to prevent couples gaining access to the wire fence.

The origins of the tradition are unclear. Some people have suggested that it became fashionable after the success of the 2008 novel “I Want You”, in which Federico Moccia’s characters show their love by attaching padlocks to a bridge in Rome. --IANS