Monumental cave art on Paris' oldest bridge finally opens, as the public steps and sniffs inside

PARIS (AP) — For weeks, a black mountain loomed over the Seine where Paris’ oldest bridge should have been. On Monday evening, its doors finally opened.

Inside, Paris smells different. The air carries the scent of earth after rain — damp ancient stone, cellar walls, perhaps a trace of smoke.

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.

Beneath it all, the old cobblestones of the Pont Neuf rise and fall underfoot.

The Pont Neuf Cavern, a monumental installation by French street artist JR — also known as the French Banksy — is free to enter around the clock through June 28.

Made largely from printed fabric and air, it transforms the 17th-century bridge into an artificial cavern rising 18 meters (59 feet) above the Seine.

“It feels like the city has disappeared,” said Léa 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.”

The smell is central to the illusion.

Olfactory expert Sarah Bouasse created two shifting scents: drawing on geosmin and isoborneol, compounds associated with the aroma released when rain strikes dry earth.

It changes along the crossing: first wet earth and mineral dampness, then something warmer, smokier and faintly animal.

“Usually I cross here without looking up once,” said Michel Dupré, 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.”

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.

Completed in 1607, the Pont Neuf — despite its name, “New Bridge” — is the oldest bridge still standing in Paris.

JR’s installation asks people to experience the familiar crossing through their noses, ears and feet.

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.

Their work covered the Pont Neuf in light.

JR sends visitors into darkness.

“You enter into the darkness,” he has said, “and emerge into the light on the other side.”

Visitors can also raise their phones to activate an augmented-reality experience developed with tech company Snap.

Digital bats trail light through the cave, passing bodies leave ghostly traces and a dancer materializes in space.

JR has linked the work to Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which prisoners mistake shadows for reality. Today’s cave walls, he argues, are screens and the algorithms that shape what people see. Yet the installation’s strongest effects require no phone.

“It’s completely strange,” said Nadia Benali, 34, smiling beside the artificial cliffs. “Paris needs things that make people stop.”

When the cave closes, its fabric will be reused or recycled.

The mountain will vanish, traffic will return and the Pont Neuf — older than the French Revolution — will emerge into the light once more.

Artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge opens to the public from June 15 to 28, in Paris, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge opens to the public from June 15 to 28, in Paris, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

McDonald’s is frying up some apple pies to honor America’s 250th birthday.

The company said Tuesday it’s bringing back fried apple pies for the first time in more than three decades. They’ll be available at most U.S. restaurants for a limited time starting June 23.

McDonald’s is one of several fast-food companies offering semiquincentennial treats. Burger King recently debuted its Firecracker Cookie Pie, which has a sugar cookie crust and red, white and blue star-shaped sprinkles. Sonic is offering a red, white and blue slush float for $2.50. Hardee's has an iced Star-Spangled Biscuit with red and blue sprinkles.

Here’s a look at McDonald’s fried apple pies by the numbers:

— 1968: The year McDonald’s introduced both its fried apple pie and the Big Mac hamburger. Litton Cochran, a McDonald's franchisee in Tennessee, developed the rectangle-shaped pie, which was served in a cardboard sleeve. 1968 was a momentous year that included the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis and Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, protests against the Vietnam War and the signing of a federal law prohibiting housing discrimination.

— 1992: The year McDonald’s replaced the fried apple pie with a baked version in most of the U.S., responding to growing consumer awareness of fat and cholesterol consumption. The U.S. Department of Agriculture first published its food guide pyramid the same year. Fried apple pie remained on McDonald's menus in Hawaii and is still sold in some other countries, including the United Kingdom, Mexico, Greece, Australia and China.

— 230: Number of calories in McDonald’s baked apple pie. That’s 10 more calories than the fried version, according to the company’s website. A cup of boiled lentils, a single almond Snickers bar and a grande Frappucino from Starbucks have the same calorie count, according to publicly available nutrition information.

— 130: Number of members of the Facebook group “Bring Back the Original McDonald’s Fried Apple Pie.” By comparison, there are 1,100 members lobbying McDonald's in the “Bring Back the McRib” Facebook group and 928 members of the “McDonald's, Bring Back the Szechuan Sauce” Facebook group.

— 170 million: Number of American-grown apples that McDonald’s says it serves every year at its U.S. stores.

— 35: Height, in feet, of a giant fried apple pie that McDonald’s is installing on Route 66 in Joliet, Illinois, near McDonald's Chicago headquarters. That's about the height of a three-story house and some species of palm trees. The giant apple pie will stay in place until July 4, the company said.

A fried apple pie sold at a McDonald’s is shown in London on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Cara Rubinsky)

A fried apple pie sold at a McDonald’s is shown in London on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Cara Rubinsky)

FILE - A McDonald's logo is shown at a restaurant in Warren, Mich., Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, file)