|
The Pont des Arts, the Heart of Romantic Paris
by Gina Doggett
If a river is a symbol of life, and a bridge
is a symbol of change, then the River Seine and its bridges symbolize
the life of Paris, where “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose”.
One thing will never change, and that is the frisson of nostalgia, the
romantic flush that overcomes you when you stop on the Pont des Arts
and gaze upriver towards the Ile de la Cité, the historic center
of Paris that was the home of kings until the 14th century.
This wooden walkway atop seven steel arches
is the natural domain of the kissing couple, intoxicated by the
seductive embrace of sky, Seine and sous-entendre.
The bridge offers a lovers'-eye-view of the famous quays, the bouquinistes
at their familiar green metal stalls selling posters and old books, the
flags of the Samaritaine department store fluttering overhead, and the
ever-gratifying Eiffel Tower defining the Parisian skyline to the west.
It is strung between the Institut de France (where you will find the Academie Française
busily defending the language of Molière against inroads by the
language of Shakespeare) and the Louvre Museum — initially the
Palais des Arts, from which the bridge derived its name.
The current structure is among the newest of
the French capital's bridges, having been completed in 1984, but it
replaced France 's first iron bridge with plans that were as faithful
as possible to the original structure, while reducing the arches from
nine to seven.
The original Pont des Arts was built in
1804, following nearly three decades after the world's first iron
bridge was built over the Severn River in England, an achievement that
Napoleon – then only First Consul, with greater ambitions ahead
of him — was eager to match.
This bridge had a series of mishaps,
including being bombarded in both World Wars and being pummeled by
passing river traffic, with serious accidents in 1961 and 1970, with
the last straw coming in 1979, when it was hit by a barge and nearly
half the structure crashed into the water.
Today its proud replacement offers benches
for picnickers and canoodlers, a stage for street performers and a
vantage point for artists, as the placid green waters of the Seine
swirl along underfoot. Here, the river's flow is barely perceptible, as
if to stop time in its tracks. This is timeless Paris .... where the
more things change, the more they stay the same.
Gina Doggett also won the 2nd prize in the Paris Essay Contest for her essay on the Galerie Véro-Dodat.
Copyright (c) 2007 - www.paris-hotel-by-district.com CH. All rights reserved.
 Back to the home page
|
