Still Here — Sort Of

Jardin des Plantes, September 4, 2010

Unlike these sunflowers, I have not died. But this blog sure seems to have gone the way of dodos, 8-track tapes, and leisure suits, hasn’t it?

I thought I would take a quick minute (although this is me here, so take the word “minute” with a grain of gros sel de cuisine and go grab your cup of coffee, or glass of wine, or whatever) to let you know what has been up and why my corner of the bloghood has been so quiet of late.

Le Pont des Arts

I cannot remember when I first became aware of the Pont des Arts.

I thought maybe it could have been in the movie Before Sunset, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, which is set in various locations around Paris. Maybe it appeared in Paris, J’taime? I’m not sure. (In fact, a quick internet search on the locations in both movies indicates “probably not.”)

What I do know is that I read a post at fellow blogger Carolyn’s site this past April: My Sydney Paris Life: Lovelock on the Pont des Arts, and after reading it thought, “What a romantic idea,” and, “I’d like to try to visit there, and maybe find her and her husband Clive’s lock.”

Not long after that April post, Paul ran into an article, similar to this one in the Telegraph, about how many Parisians feel the locks are an eyesore and how the city sent out workers to cut them off of the bridge. I’d read the article and its explanations about how not long ago the locks of love started turning up on the bridge and what the possible roots are of doing something like this. While part of me empathizes with how the locks could crowd and “junk up” the bridge, most of me thinks the creativity and romance of it touching. It’s a little like the lipstick kisses on Oscar Wilde’s memorial in Père Lachaise Cemetery: people either seem to really dig stuff like that or think it is disgusting. I’m very much in the “dig it” camp.

Carolyn and her spouse, Clive, returned this summer to discover that their lock had been removed, but they put up a new lovelock in its place not long after.

I was therefore most pleased when a couple of weeks ago, Paul said that he had an idea for a piece of micro or “flash” fiction for his blog and that he wanted to go check the bridge out to get some photos.