Lovelocks

We were always led to believe that Paris is a picturesque romantic city, where people would come to find love, kiss under the Eiffel Tower, consecrate their love in a lock, and be happily ever after.

Visiting these famous romantic locations really make me rethink my expectations of the city and what it means for a place to be romantic. 

Paris is most definitely picturesque. Just look at La Seine - Its beautiful from any angle. Even the Pont des Arts looks nice from afar against the pretty blue sky.

 

But what does it mean to lock the lock and throw away the key, is this act a romantic one? When couples struggle to lock their lock on any available space and attempt to get a picture with their lock from an awkward angle. What is the significance in that? To tell people "hey, we manage to claim a spot on the bridge, we're committing to a forever"? All the locks look exactly the same, with different names. Somehow - pardon me for being cynical - it is sort of saying that "love" is the same, nothing unique to each individual you date. Every couple with their own story, supposedly something special, but somehow when people participate in such commercialised activity, the uniqueness withers to something meaningless. I hope for every individual who locked their love to the bridge, that their relationship with whoever they did the activity with actually lasts forever.

Nevertheless, there are some locks that took a lot of effort, and managed to catch my eye amidst the massive interlocking of metal.

This is a common looking lock that is sold somewhere along the pavement towards Pont des Arts, but look at the date! Haha, the story in my head is this couple is planning to get married on 10.11.14 and he proposed using this? 

This is the most epic. I LOL-ed for real when I saw it.

Paris is not romantic, its the couples that are romantic. Not the couples making out along the pavements, those are just like oh whatever. Most typical conservative asians will feel awkward with the liberal expression of love and look away, but since I'm  shameless, I just look/stare, and its nothing too special. 

What is cute, is the middle age couple who laid out towels on the bridge and just sat there and had a mini picnic. They took A photo, and their faces looked so genuinely happy. Happy to be basking under the sun together amidst the crowd of teenagers/young adults posing with locks taking panorama shots. This couple is why Paris is seen as romantic.

Decided to head over to the Louvre in the evening since there was still sometime to kill, did not attempt to queue and go in for the mona lisa,  I just strolled near the fountain and people watch.

The whole time I was wondering how fashion bloggers get photos of just them and their clothes. It's practically impossible. There are way too many people around! Do they photoshop them out? Do they just crop out the couples that are making out and the people lying around near the fountain increasing their Vitamin D levels? Kind of an interesting thought.

It was a nice walking around in the area, and while so doing, I met cute couple number 2. This old couple, probably English, were just walking around and then the lady asked the guy to take a photo of her and the pyramid. When she retrieved the camera from him, she laughed and smacked him on the head with a roll of paper she was holding. While he was taking the photo, he asked her to shift to the side and he probably zoomed in such that she was cut out of the photo. It was so cute how she blushed and he just laughed at her. Even at such an old age they behave like goofy best friends. Thats true love indeed.

So is Paris romantic? I don't know. I honestly think its the couples that are romantic. It's the love they have for each other, it's the way they were brought up, how they were taught to express their love, not be shy and that its most definitely okay to kiss in public (remember this jerald tan hahah!). Im pretty sure those 2 couples will be romantic any where else, even in sunny Singapore. 

More importantly, visiting these places alone, its hard to imagine Paris as romantic. Having to go out of my comfort zone (well just with the language barrier and the lack of companionship), having to travel solo, adjusting to taking care of an apartment and my daily needs most definitely makes it hard to perceive the city as romantic. But, once again, I will say, its MOST DEFINITELY Beautiful.

Side story: So, at the Louvre, I was just minding my own business, walking around and observing people, families, couples etc. and when I was about to leave, suddenly this man - that was probably double my size - came up to me and said something in french. I didn't realise he was talking to me until he was right beside me. The rule that I was told is: when approached by random people in Paris do not entertain them. But he did not seem like he was about to rob me, so I just said I don't speak french and apologised. Was about to walk away when he struck up a conversation asking me what I was doing, and where I was from. 

The conversation went pretty well, he told me he worked in Singapore 10 years ago and like it, and that he was in the airline industry. I told him I was an intern and that I was hoping to learn french.
After 10 to 15 minutes or so, the conversation ended and he asked if we could take a photograph together, and he wanted to use my phone! It felt a little bit random and off, so my gut instinct was to say no, and I just said I was shy. HAHA - i'm never shy but well, I had to act like I was, in case he was trying to take my phone or something. Better paranoid than sorry. I don't think I can survive without my phone.
After saying no a couple of times, he didn't insist (thankfully) and we said goodbye. Typically french people will kiss to greet each other, but instead of just kissing the air near the face, he actually kissed my face. I was pretty shocked.

The conclusion is, Parisians are charming - they wink at people a lot, its cute, and they are certainly not conservative. Hahaha, regardless, I had a good day!