Locals Say This Popular Romantic Souvenir Is a Total Waste of Money
Paris has long been sold as the ultimate city of love, and it is easy to see why. Couples stroll along the Seine, share pastries in quiet cafés, and pose beneath the Eiffel Tower. In the middle of all that romance, many visitors are tempted by one symbolic gesture: buying a padlock, writing their names on it, and attaching it to a bridge as a sign of everlasting love. It sounds sweet. It feels cinematic. But locals say love locks are one of the most overrated and wasteful romantic souvenirs travelers can buy.
We often see vendors near major landmarks, especially around bridges like Pont des Arts or Pont de l’Archevêché, selling small locks marketed specifically to couples. The pitch is simple: lock your love in Paris and throw away the key. The problem is that this tradition has already caused serious damage to the city’s historic bridges. The weight of thousands of locks in the past led to sections of fencing collapsing, prompting city officials to remove them and replace railings with panels designed to prevent more locks from being added.
That means when we buy a love lock today, there is a strong chance it will be cut off and discarded during routine maintenance. Instead of becoming a lasting symbol, it often ends up as scrap metal. From the local perspective, the gesture is less romantic and more of a recurring cleanup problem that costs time and public money.
There is also the environmental angle. Throwing keys into the Seine, another part of the ritual, adds metal waste to a river that the city has spent years trying to clean. What feels like a small personal moment becomes part of a much larger impact when repeated by thousands of visitors each year.
None of this means we should skip romance in Paris. It just means we may want to choose memories over metal. A photo at sunset along the river, a handwritten note shared at a café, or even a small piece of art from a local market will last longer and carry more meaning.
Locals are not against love. They simply know that this particular souvenir rarely stays where we leave it. When we understand that, we can choose gestures that celebrate romance without turning into waste.
