Passerelle Léopold Sédar Senghor, 1st/7th arrondissements, Paris, France: Literary Île-de-France #37

The original name for this bridge was Pont de Solferino.

However, on the centenary of the birth of the Senegalese poet, who was the president of Senegal for twenty years, it was renamed the Passerelle Léopold Sédar Senghor.

A curious thing about the bridge is the custom of lovers leaving locks there with their names, and there must be several hundreds of these locks along the bridge.

But this is not a new phenomenon and exists in several other countries. Love padlocks, or love locks can, for example, be found on the Ponte Milvio in Rome, a custom which is attributed to Federico Moccia's book Ho volgia di te (I Want You), which was later turned into a movie.

Most of them are written on with highlighter.

Many are presumably been there a long time from the rust on them.

And some couples make the effort to have them engraved.

Returning to Senghor, to the south-east of Paris, at St-Maur-Des-Fossés in Val-de-Marne, is Avenue Léopold Sédar Senghor, where there is even a quotation:

'J'AI RÊVÉ D'UN MONDE DE SOLEIL

DANS LA FRATERNITÉ DE MES FRÈRES

AU YEUX BLEUES

LÉOPOLD SÉDAR SENGHOR

ÉCRIVAIN ET HOMME POLITIQUE

SÉNÉGALAIS 1906—2001'