Love is in the Air

          Gorgeous red hearts are fluttering everywhere.  On cups and saucers, on balloons and pretty cards; and on cookies and cakes in my bake shop window.  Even I have been the recipient of some lovely cards.  Admittedly they are from my dentist, my doctor and my insurance agent who wants to make me even happier with a new car/home plan, but why quibble.  It’s the thought that counts and a card is a card, isn’t it?

          The florists too are having a wonderful time making up vases, pots and baskets filled to overflowing with bright red roses to offer their buyers.  It will soon, after all, be Valentine’s Day, the day when men, young and older alike, can make their intentions known by delivering a card, a rose, or, if they’re feeling fairly flush, a gemstone trinket to the girl of their dreams.

          Of course not everyone follows tradition.  There are some who think Valentine’s Day is a dreadful commercial enterprise thrust upon an unwilling public by the Association of Rose Growers and Red Paint Owners.  Perhaps they have a point, for pity the poor man who didn’t send (or simply forgot to send) a posy of flowers to the office of his beloved.  It is after all an unwritten law that the more elaborate a Valentine’s floral arrangement sitting on your desk happens to be, the more loved you are by your husband or boyfriend/admirer and therefore the envy of the rest of the office staff rises exponentially.

          While in Paris with my granddaughter last year, we happened to be walking across the Seine along one of the smaller bridges from the Left Bank over to Notre Dame.  A bridge made of cyclone wire fencing rather than bricks and mortar.

          It was my granddaughter who pointed out the odd appendages fastened all over the bridge completely covering the cyclone wire.  We stood open-mouthed and amazed.  Hundreds and hundreds of padlocks with names painted or scratched onto the face of each, completely covered the bridge.  The padlocks were of all sizes and shapes, and of all colors, some had ribbons or tiny cards tied to them too.  What could they mean?

          The concierge at our hotel filled us in.  Apparently newly weds or starry-eyed lovers fasten the padlocks onto the fencing material and throw the keys into the Seine.  A testament to their everlasting love.  I can’t help but wonder though…what happens if or when, the ‘everlasting love,’ is no more?  Do the people concerned hire divers to search for the key to their padlock?  Do they appear on the bridge with wire cutters in hand and with one clip remove the now offending padlock? 

 

          I’d like to think that all those who placed padlocks on that bridge will indeed experience a wonderful and everlasting love.  Hey, this is Paris after all…the city of romantic love.  Where else if not there?

          Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone…enjoy it with your loved ones.