What a pathetic consumer I turned out to be...my first concern...when I heard that Prada had opened a new "concept" store in Paris...based on Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem, 'Le Pont Mirabeau'...was not "ooh, I wonder if any special goodies were created for this"...nope, instead I sat around wondering how the poem had been brought to life (courtesy of bricks, mortar, and a lavish decorating budget)...

Beneath Pont Mirabeau there flows the Seine and so our loves. How much must I again recall that joy will ever follow pain? The night hours strike and have their say. The days will leave, but here I stay. Hand in hand and resting face to face through bridging arms we watch the waters race, the waves so weary in their endless chase. The night hours strike and have their say. The days will leave, but here I stay. Love goes on and like the water's flow it goes away. Life continues, slow it seems, but hope is ever violent though. The night hours strike and have their say. The days will leave, but here I stay. There pass the days and pass the weeks and then that time is past and love won't come again. Beneath Pont Mirabeau there flows the Seine.

To be honest, at least from pictures, I think this is one of those ideas that sounded better than it actually turned out...this looks to be more of an homage to the bridge itself (the first in the city to be built from metal)...than a physical manifestation of the spirit of lost love present in the poem...unless, that is, the "joy will ever follow pain" is the joy that you will feel from owning your purchase after the pain of handing over the cash to pay for it.