Loved up couples arm in arm strolling the streets, snuggling in warm cafés, kissing on steps…it’s enough to make a girl want to adopt a perfect stranger for the day. Handsome, debonaire, with a small dog and a large smile…oh that’s right they’re taken…sigh. Instead I create my imaginary composite and just as I’m having a gay old time window shopping with ‘Jacques’ I stumble upon ‘the wall’. The ‘I love you’ wall! Or more precisely the ‘Mur des Je t’aime.

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Forgetting about Jacques I examine the wall, feel even more lonely, shed a tear then toughen up. I promised reports on the lesser known gems of Paris my friends and I will deliver! And this one’s particularly special.

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Frédéric Baron created the concept and Claire Kito, an artist who practices oriental calligraphy, assembled the script. Their collaboration resulted in a wall composed of 612 squares of blue enameled lava on which the principle languages and dialects of the planet feature in the form of the words ‘I love you’ – 311 times and in 250 languages. The splashes of red on the fresco represent parts of a broken heart, symbolizing the human race which has been torn apart and which the wall is attempting to bring back together.

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Just above is Rita Hayworth by artist Rue Meurt d’Art, and a loose translation is, “Loving is chaos… so, let’s love.” To the right of Rita you can see a ghost. That’s Ava Gardner who originally graced the wall. C’est une mystère… The monument, dedicated to love, stands in a Square at the Place des Abbesses in Montmartre. Jacques and I concur – it’s a must see for lovers, after all Paris is the city of love.