It used to be that Paris was regarded as the City of Love.

But with Covid travel restrictions still in place, lovers in Kent will need to look much closer to home to find the perfect romantic destination this St Valentine's Day today.

Watch: How couples can celebrate Valentines Day in lockdown

Fortunately we know just the spot - Maidstone's High Level Rail Bridge.

The bridge that spans the River Medway nestles in the heart of Maidstone - Kent's county town of love.

For those not familiar with the area, rest assured that you don't have to walk down the rail-lines to access this romantic idyll - there is a public footbridge running parallel to the tracks from which the view is every bit as beautiful as that from the Pont des Arts in gay Paree.

Looking south, that's upstream from the bridge, you can see to the right a building that was erected in 1917 as a factory for Tilling-Stevens, the Maidstone motor manufacturer, where they made the first hybrid petrol-electric buses.

The factory was built to the Kahn Daylight principle - then a totally new concept in industrial building, a style that was in fact copied by Henry Ford when he built his first Highland Park car plant in Michigan.

We are sure you will agree the view of this Grade II listed building is far superior to that obtained from the Pont des Arts, where to the one side there is only a dusty old museum which they call the Loofah, or something like that, and to other, a sequence of moored cafe boats, or tourist traps, selling overpriced Expressos and pastis.

A glance to the other side of the Maidstone High Level Rail Bridge, to the east, reveals - well actually you may have to peer carefully through the blocks of flats - a glimpse of the lovely Brenchley Gardens, named after the famous Victorian "gentleman explorer" Julius Brenchley - a great benefactor of the town, who spent much of his life in the South Seas, which we are sure you will agree if you have ever watched The Bounty is also a very romantic place.

Sadly Julius had little time for romance himself. When he died a bachelor in 1873, his family explained that he had never married because he "was too busy exploring."

Anyway, Brenchley Gardens are well worth a visit when you've finished on the bridge - the perfect place to enjoy your romantic Valentine's Day picnic together, although under the present lockdown rules you will have to eat your salmon and cucumber sandwiches while you are walking around the park and taking your permitted daily exercise.

In Paris, the nearest piece of greenery to the Pont des Arts is the very inferior Jardin des Tuileries with its decaying statues by Maillol, Rodin and Giacometti.

Brenchley Gardens, however, has a Victorian bandstand, and sometimes, if you close your eyes and concentrate on blocking out the sound of the traffic on Fairmeadow, you can just hear the dulcet tones of a regimental band from years gone by, sitting in their splendid red uniforms and white pith helmets, and playing I Do Love To Be Beside The Sea Side.

If you look further up river, to the left, you will see the rear end of the Fremlin Walk shopping centre.

No doubt in France this would have been designed to provide yet another over-priced restaurant with a view over-looking the water, but in England we appreciate that what people really want next to the main waterway through their town is a car park, after all no-one wants to walk too far, even to reach such a romantic location as the High Level Rail Bridge.

If you look forward up the Seine from the Pont des Arts in Paris, you have a view of the Ile De La Cite, which as we all know is home to a famous French church called Notre Dame.

But you know you can't really see it as the Pont Neuf is in the way and in any case, since it caught fire in 2019 the church is not that special.

From the High Level Rail Bridge however, you have a magnificent view of Maidstone Bridge, although you do have to go right off to one side of the bridge and sort of peer round the bend in the river a little bit.

Maidstone Bridge was built in 1879 by the distinguished Victorian engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who was an expert in constructing sewers. The bridge is admittedly not at its best at the moment, as a motorist recently lost control and put a dent in it.

Also to be quite fair, it is not actually the Maidstone Bridge you can see at all, but rather the other one of Maidstone's two road bridges, called St Peter's Bridge, and built in 1977. Still you know the Maidstone Bridge is there, somewhere.

If you stand on the High Level Rail Bridge and look the other way, unfortunately you can see nothing, except perhaps the Maidstone East to Victoria train, as the railway gets in the way.

Here the French have us. Turning round on the Pont des Arts, there is distant view of the Eiffel Tower, but it is distant, and in any case we all know what the Eiffel Tower looks like.

The Pont des Arts used to be known as The Bridge Of Love. This was because of the many lovers who came from around the world to peg a padlock to the iron latticework of the bridge.

The idea was that it was a symbol of their undying devotion. Like the padlock, the bonds of love could never be broken. Habitually, lovers would lock the padlock together and toss the key over the parapet.

Those who were not quite sure that their love was undying would use a combination lock so that they could undo it again later if necessary, or perhaps even keep a spare key.

That's not very romantic, we hear you say, but the truth is the French are not very romantic, because in 2015 the French authorities came along and removed every single one of those love locks, cutting through the unbreakable bonds in seconds with a pair of bolt-cutters.

They sold the treasured love locks for scrap and offered only the rather flimsy excuse that the weight from thousands of padlocks was causing the bridge to collapse.

They even removed the metal grills from the side of the bridge and replaced them with glass panels, so that there was nothing to attach locks to in future.

That's where the Maidstone's High Level Bridge comes into its own.

It is only just beginning to become known as a trysting place, or Maidstone's Bridge Of Love, but many lovers have already attached their padlocks to it.

Of course, if you don't live close to Maidstone, you're a bit stuck this year. The police will not take kindly to you travelling, even for an affair of the heart.

The obvious candle-lit dinner out is also not possible and persuading a light aircraft pilot to skate past your beloved's house trailing a banner saying "I love you", may also be difficult to arrange, but guys, don't forget that Interflora is still delivering, so remember the bouquet at least.

We suggest the best thing to do is to try to find your own bridge of love locally.

Canterbury has the next best option after the Maidstone High Level Rail Bridge.

It offers Kings Bridge over the River Stour. The bridge itself is Grade II listed as it dates from 1734. Many people have attached their love-locks there in the past.

The Ashford Designer Retail Outlet also tried to get in the game back in 2016, not with a bridge but with a purpose-built railing at which shoppers were actually invited to peg their love-lock, with locks available to purchase nearby.

Too commercial, we think you'll agree, even if the money from the sale of the locks was going too support the Pilgrims Hospice.

After all, as the Beatles told us, money can't buy you love. In any case the railing has since been removed.

No, better we think, to seek out some new bridge and make it your own special place.

Here are some options.

Rochester Bridge is one of the most historic in the county.

Read up all about the Bridge Wardens first so you know the story and chaps remember to point out to your loved one that there are now actually four bridges - two road, one rail and one for utilities.

That will be really romantic, like in Saturday Night Fever when John Travolta tells Karen Lyn Gorney how many tons of cement were used to make the Brooklyn Bridge and how one of the workers fell into the cement pour and is buried there.

Just upriver, there's Medway Bridge, carrying the M2 motorway.

Perhaps some people will be surprised to learn you can cross as a pedestrian on a separate walkway.

In fact it forms part of the North Downs Way.

There are fine views of Borstal, of Rochester Castle and of the cinema complex at Strood.

Admittedly the roar of the motorway traffic makes whispering sweet nothings difficult - you will have to shout them. Also girls, you will need to wrap up warm, no low-cut dresses as the wind travelling up the river can be really icy.

One of the more attractive bridges recently built is Peters Bridge at Wouldham, which opened in 2016.

The whole river scene is lovely around there. Give it a go.

But don't call it St Peter's Bridge or you will be told off by the locals, as its named after a cement factory and not a church.

Another good bridge, often overlooked, is the bridge that carries New Road over the A230 Maidstone Road in the centre of Chatham. No river, but still worth taking a closer look.

Sadly, perhaps the county's two most iconic bridges - the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford and the Sheppey Crossing over The Swale on the way to Sheerness - are both for traffic only, no pedestrians allowed.

What a Shame...

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