The River Seine is France’s third-longest river, extending 485 miles from Dijon to the English Channel. The river has been the subject of many famous impressionist paintings, including Monet’s Bathers at La Grenouillere and Renoir’s Seine River at Asnieres.

While it’s common knowledge that the Notre Dame Cathedral is the technical epicentre of Paris, the real essence of the city is captured by the river Seine. The river Seine flows right through the heart of Paris bordering 10 of the 20 arrondisements. The river is still the chief commercial waterway and half of the water used in Paris still comes from the Seine.

There are 32 bridges on the river in Paris, some of them more impressive than others. The oldest bridge is the Pont Neuf which has been immortalized by artists and poets and even 20th century films.

Starting in 2008 romantic couples, mostly if not all tourists, began attaching padlocks with their names to the bridge and throwing the key into the Seine as a gesture of their commitment to each other. At its peak there were more than a million locks and city officials became concerned that the weight might be damaging the structure of the bridge. In 2014 part of the parapet actually collapsed and the authorities began a social media campaign called Love without Locks, encouraging tourists to take selfies instead. They removed the locks which weighed around 45 tons and began to replace the railings with panels that you could not hang a lock on.