francofiled

When workmen were seen taking away a padlock festooned section of balustrade on the Pont des Arts in Paris last week it sparked off some concerns that the "love locks" - cadenas - would be removed from other bridges too. The Libération newspaper reports here that there are no plans to do this however it also pointed out that not everyone is in favour of them and would like them removed. A no love locks campaign has been set up and has organised a petition. Check it out here . Since they first appeared about 6 years ago the locks have multiplied to approximately 700,000 and on the Pont des Arts alone are estimated to weigh about 40 tonnes. The locks on the much smaller Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, formerly known as Passerelle Solférino and don't look as if they would cause too much trouble. But how to remove them should that be necessary? By replacing the balustrade. There are no keys as having locked their love couples throw them into the Seine. The locks are...

The origins of this talk by Hélène GUILLET and Philip McGRORY date back to an idea of then French President, Nicolas Sarkozy to mark Ireland's chairmanship of the European Union. He had the idea of an exhibition charting connections between the two countries. The exhibition was set out in a series of panels with commentaries in English, French and Irish. We were therefore honoured that the person tasked with providing the French translation was none other than our speaker, Hélène. Our speakers explained the origins of the Collège des Irlandais in Paris on the rue des Irlandais near the Sorbonne. Hélène showed us a picture of a wedding ceremony being performed in the famous cultural centre. It was her wedding from two and a half years ago in which she married Cairan who also worked on the President's commemorative project mentioned above. Next, Philip brought us closer to home and into Lisburn. He shared a little known fact that Lisburn was the only town in Ulst...