PARIS \u2014 For weeks, a black mountain loomed over the Seine where Paris’ oldest bridge should have been. On Monday evening, its doors finally opened.<\/p>\n
Inside, Paris smells different. The air carries the scent of earth after rain \u2014 damp ancient stone, cellar walls, perhaps a trace of smoke.<\/p>\n
Visitors step from the bright riverfront into a dark passage lined with glowing photographs of caves, as a low electronic pulse seems to breathe through the walls.<\/p>\n
Beneath it all, the old cobblestones of the Pont Neuf rise and fall underfoot.<\/p>\n
The Pont Neuf Cavern, a monumental installation by French street artist JR \u2014 also known as the French Banksy \u2014 is free to enter around the clock through June 28.<\/p>\n
Made largely from printed fabric and air, it transforms the 17th-century bridge into an artificial cavern rising 59 feet above the Seine.<\/p>\n
“It feels like the city has disappeared,” said L\u00e9a Martin, a 22-year-old art student from Lyon on Tuesday. “You know the river is right outside, but for a moment you’re somewhere ancient.”<\/p>\n
The smell is central to the illusion.<\/p>\n
Olfactory expert Sarah Bouasse created two shifting scents: drawing on geosmin and isoborneol, compounds associated with the aroma released when rain strikes dry earth.<\/p>\n
It changes along the crossing: first wet earth and mineral dampness, then something warmer, smokier and faintly animal.<\/p>\n
“Usually I cross here without looking up once,” said Michel Dupr\u00e9, a 67-year-old retiree, blinking as he emerged into daylight. “Today I felt the stones under my feet. And smelled them too. It makes you walk like a child again.”<\/p>\n
A sound installation by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of the French electronic duo Daft Punk, accompanies the work, filling the cavern with low rumbles, echoes and pulses.<\/p>\n
Completed in 1607, the Pont Neuf \u2014 despite its name, “New Bridge” \u2014 is the oldest bridge still standing in Paris.<\/p>\n
JR’s installation asks people to experience the familiar crossing through their noses, ears and feet.<\/p>\n
It also pays tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose 1985 wrapping of the bridge in pale golden fabric drew an estimated 3 million visitors.<\/p>\n