I was in Paris with my daughter, Amy and my two sisters for the St Patrick’s Weekend. I love travelling and I especially love visiting cities that have amazing art galleries. Paris is full of art and culture – you can’t walk around a corner without finding a wonderful church or historical building. It’s my favourite city in the world – and I can’t wait to go back again. We visited the Louvre and the Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world; and the Musee D’Orsay, full of Impressionist paintings that you would instantly recognise.
At the Pompidou Centre I spent ages staring in awe at the Black and Red Rothko painting – my favourite artist – marvelling at his colours and how his paintings make me feel. My daughter loved this gallery as it had a wonderful Frida Kahlo exhibition especially for children. She lay in Frida’s ‘bed’ and tried to draw lying on her back; she had her photo taken with some of Frida’s favourite things; she watched short movies about Frida, her paintings and her huge love for life.
Amy at the Frida Kahlo Exhibition
We also spent time on one of the ‘Lock Bridges’ – where sweethearts, sisters or best friends leave a lock engraved with their names to mark their love for each other.
One of the Lock Bridges in Paris
While watching happy couples and groups of friends placing their locks on the bridge and taking a photograph to mark and remember the occasion, I started to think about the different kinds of people and why they might put a lock the bridge. What might happen if they fell out and their lock was still there? Would they go back and remove the lock? Would they remove it at night? Or first thing in the morning? What if they’d lost the key – would they have to cut it off? What if they meet someone else on the bridge in exactly the same situation? Maybe one of them has a small saw to remove the lock and the other happens to need a small saw . . .
That’s how writers’ minds work – they question things all the time. It's the great 'What If?' What if twin sisters put a lock on the bridge but one of them died? What if three best friends visited the bridge together, swore to do it again in ten years at exactly the same time, on exactly the same day and then fate pulled them apart?
My mind is always hopping with ideas while travelling. I think it’s a combination of being in a new place, not having to worry about the day to day things like buying milk, and also being inspired by my surroundings.
The Lock Bridges are pretty special. Maybe you’ll get the chance to visit them some day. And maybe they will inspire you too.
Yours in writing,
Sarah XXX
This post originally appeared on the Girls Heart Books website www.girlsheartbooks.com