Le Pont des Artistes' grilled wall 10 years ago Ahhh - Paris. The most beautiful city on Earth - and the number one tourist destination too. More people visit Paris each year than any other travel destination. How many? Statistics vary (for some unknown reason) from 35 all the way up to 58 million annual visitors. But whatever the actual figure is - it's a lot. I mean, consider that the leading attraction there - Notre Dame Cathedral - in 2008 saw 13 million visitors. That's over a million a month. And every year sees more. Many more.
I love Paris. I could write 15 pages on just the things that are great about the 'city of light'. But every time I visit, the increase in the number of tourists is clearly noticeable. The first time I visited the Musée d'Orsay (mid 90's) there was no line to get in and plenty of elbow room once inside. But on a visit this spring, I waited in a very long line for over an hour, and once inside it seemed more like a packed metro station than a museum. And this is true of all the major venues. There are mobs of tourists all over Paris now.
I love Paris. I could write 15 pages on just the things that are great about the 'city of light'. But every time I visit, the increase in the number of tourists is clearly noticeable. The first time I visited the Musée d'Orsay (mid 90's) there was no line to get in and plenty of elbow room once inside. But on a visit this spring, I waited in a very long line for over an hour, and once inside it seemed more like a packed metro station than a museum. And this is true of all the major venues. There are mobs of tourists all over Paris now.
And today - the art of the masses You Call That Love?
As bothersome as this is, an even more troubling development, which I first noticed 3 years ago, has now developed into a full-blown plague. It's graffiti. And not just your average spray-can variety left by local teens - but tourist-generated graffiti. And the irony is that the tourist graffiti is ostensibly a sign of each tourist's love of the beauty of Paris.
It first started less than 5 years ago. I was walking across the Pont des Artistes - a pedestrian-only bridge on the Seine - when I noticed 3 or 4 padlocks in the bridge's grilled wall. And on each padlock was written the names of two lovers. After inquiring, I was told they'd been locked there as a sign of the lovers' unbreakable bond to each other - and to Paris. "Interesting", I thought. Even a tad romantic. And I forgot all about it.
Then - as I walked across the same bridge a few months ago - I was stunned to see not just 3 or 4 such signs of "love" - but literally hundreds. Padlocks of every imaginable variety and color, each with names written on them - and each permanently sealed in-place. And what had once been a simple, and delightfully artistic grilled-wall, was now a cluttered monstrosity resembling more a junk-yard than anything else.
As bothersome as this is, an even more troubling development, which I first noticed 3 years ago, has now developed into a full-blown plague. It's graffiti. And not just your average spray-can variety left by local teens - but tourist-generated graffiti. And the irony is that the tourist graffiti is ostensibly a sign of each tourist's love of the beauty of Paris.
It first started less than 5 years ago. I was walking across the Pont des Artistes - a pedestrian-only bridge on the Seine - when I noticed 3 or 4 padlocks in the bridge's grilled wall. And on each padlock was written the names of two lovers. After inquiring, I was told they'd been locked there as a sign of the lovers' unbreakable bond to each other - and to Paris. "Interesting", I thought. Even a tad romantic. And I forgot all about it.
Then - as I walked across the same bridge a few months ago - I was stunned to see not just 3 or 4 such signs of "love" - but literally hundreds. Padlocks of every imaginable variety and color, each with names written on them - and each permanently sealed in-place. And what had once been a simple, and delightfully artistic grilled-wall, was now a cluttered monstrosity resembling more a junk-yard than anything else.
The cancer spreads Et Tu Bruté?
And like any plague - it is now spreading. Each and every bridge in central Paris with such a wall is now being targeted by these "lovers" of the city. And the cumulative impact of this love-fest is the slow, methodical destruction of one of the great works of art in Paris; the sublime simplicity of her bridges.
In his book The Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega y Gasset asserted that the advent of the consciousness of 'mass man' as a social phenomena is new to the age of industrialism. And further, that this 'mass man' intervenes in everything - and that this intervention is solely by violence.
When I first read that in college, I didn't understand what he meant. But now, each time I walk across the Pont des Artistes (once upon a time, my favorite), I not only understand, but I also mumble a quiet, "Amen".
Sadly.
And like any plague - it is now spreading. Each and every bridge in central Paris with such a wall is now being targeted by these "lovers" of the city. And the cumulative impact of this love-fest is the slow, methodical destruction of one of the great works of art in Paris; the sublime simplicity of her bridges.
In his book The Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega y Gasset asserted that the advent of the consciousness of 'mass man' as a social phenomena is new to the age of industrialism. And further, that this 'mass man' intervenes in everything - and that this intervention is solely by violence.
When I first read that in college, I didn't understand what he meant. But now, each time I walk across the Pont des Artistes (once upon a time, my favorite), I not only understand, but I also mumble a quiet, "Amen".
Sadly.
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