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Move over Paris! Small town aims to be France's new City of Love

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
Move over Paris! Small town aims to be France's new City of Love
Photo: leniners/Flickr

The small northern town of Lens wants the French capital to stop having a monopoly on romance.

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Lens, a town in the far north of France with a population of roughly 31,000, is fighting for its right to also be known as a “Ville de l’Amour”. 

Authorities in this town in the Pas-de-Calais department plan to launch a tech and love-themed treasure hunt that will draw in tourists with a craving for romantic stories.

As part of an exhibition titled “Love” at Len’s very own Louvre museum (which generally borrows collections from its big brother in Paris), the town’s tourism office will launch a geocaching love trail based on the exact information sent in by couples who found love in the town’s cafés and streets.

Lens. Photo: Guillaume Baviere/Flickr

For those who haven’t heard of geocaching before, it’s an outdoor recreational activity in which players use a GPS receiver or their mobiles to seek out “geocaches” on a map using clues.

“We all agreed that this love-themed geocaching campaign would be a fun and moving way for visitors to get to discover Lens,” Florence Houvenaghel, of Lens’s tourism office, told French daily Le Parisien.

“We’ve already collected stories of first kisses exchanged at the Bollaert stadium for example, but these stories can also be located in places that are now missing, such as cafes or dance halls, or even mining pits!

“But we’re also looking for entries for say parks where couples had their wedding photos taken.

“We’ve had a flurry of stories being sent in, from people of all ages."

Lovebirds who fell for each other in Lens and or the 36 community-strong district it forms part of (Lens-Liévin) have until September 16th to submit their stories of enamourment to [email protected].

The geocaching love trail will begin on September 28th and run as an ongoing campaign until, perhaps, the love for it runs out.

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