There are a few iconic images of Paris and most seem to be captured by Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson or Willy Ronis. Those crisp silver toned black and white images that still stand the test of time and are etched in our memories for generations. Les Amoureux de la Bastille might be more iconic than Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville
The father of Willy Ronis was born in Odessa, Ukraine and fled to Paris where he set up a photography studio. Willy had other ideas of being a composer but when his father got sick he took over the business. Willy liked the streets of Paris much better than sitting in a studio capturing portraits. One day in 1957 he decided to climb the July Column of the Place de la Bastille. While up there snapping a few pictures he saw a young couple on the edge looking down the Rue Saint Antoine. You can see Notre Dame de Paris, Eglise Saint Paul Saint Louis and other landmarks immortalized in black and white.
Willy took one photo and walked back down and went on with his day. The image was later reproduced in magazines and postcards and spread across the world. However, Ronis never knew who the young lovers were until 31 years later. At a Valentine’s Day exhibition at the Comptoir de la Photographie in the Marais where his famous painting was on display a young man walked up with a book for him to autograph.
Talking with Ronis he told him that he knew the young lovebirds that stood so high over Paris. Willy couldn’t believe it, and it got better. “They own a restaurant just around the corner at 10 rue Saint Antoine, I can take you there.”
Riton and Marinette came to Paris just from Alsace and on that day they climbed to the top this one and only time. Three years later they were married and had opened a restaurant and later had a poster of the photo framed in their bistro in the shadows of the statue of Beaumarchais; the couple had remained for 29 years since that photo.
As they stood up there that day in 1957, they would be immortalized forever, but they had no idea that the restaurant they would own the rest of their life was also immortal. Just down the street and in the photo it can be seen in the corner of the photo.