Once upon a... Bridge

How odd...

I was checking my photo folders (I've got folders that have sub-folders that have sub-sub-folders, etc...), and I found a little miracle. A collectable. A memory of a bitter-sweet past.

I give you, in the spring of the year 2008, the Pont des arts in romantic Paris:

Towards the Pont neuf ->

 Towards the Eiffel Tower ->

You'll spot a few locks on the first photo, but that was nothing compared with the mess it is today (just search for images for that bridge, and you'll get to see the extent of the damage [and I do mean damage because that idiotic fad of leaving a Love Lock is endangering the integrity of the structure, and the keys are polluting the river, but... hey! It's for lurrrve! /Sarc off ].

The pointless and dangerous locks are being removed, and a few sections have been covered with something that looks like plastic... and a few plonkers - in lurrrve - have used permanent markers to leave messages on those.

Since there's a big metal "X" in the centre of each section, I'd like to see those plastic-free (if you fall by stepping through those, you deserve to drown; that's active Darwinism), but it's certainly not going to happen because:

a - some brainless adults would try to step through those and either get stuck or fall into the river, and the Fire Brigade would have to intervene

b - some brainless pseudo-adults would be engrossed in taking a pseudo-romantic selfie, and their kids would fall into the river

That poor bridge is probably going to end up with plastic panels covered with graffiti.

It was such a lovely bridge...

... I bet the people who make locks, and the people who sell them, are laughing at the gullibility of the masses.

The people making and selling permanent markers are next in line for a good laugh, I fear.

*sigh*