'Lovers of the A-2' identified: Couple snapped kissing in the snow given free trip to Paris

A PHOTOGRAPHER who took a once-in-a-lifetime shot of a couple kissing in the middle of a motorway when it was ankle-deep in snow has managed to trace the subjects. 

María de la Cruz Valdemoro snapped a young man and woman in a passionate embrace as the snow fell around them on a completely traffic-free A-2 motorway, which had been shut and was being used as a footpath.

She posted it on social media, asking the couple featured to come forward so she could give them the original as a keepsake.

Neither Pedro, 25 nor Blanca, 26 use social media, so it was their friends who identified them and led to their getting in touch with María de la Cruz.

It turned out the young couple had first got together when they were 17, but about two years ago, broke off their relationship to 'give themselves some space' and decide where they were headed in life.

On the very day they were photographed in the middle of the A-2 Madrid-Zaragoza motorway underneath the signs pointing to the A-6 and Burgos, and the C/ Arturo Soria, they had decided to meet, just as friends and for old times' sake, for a chat.

One thing led to another, they realised they still loved each other and wanted to be together, and what María de la Cruz caught on camera was their reconciliation embrace – their first kiss in over two years.

The photographer has spoken to them on the phone – she had several couples contacting her believing it might be them, so she asked them all questions to check – and has confirmed the man and woman in the picture are indeed Pedro and Blanca.

And that's not all: National airline Iberia had shared María de la Cruz's picture and appeal to help find the pair, offering a free trip to Paris for whoever it turned out to be.

This means that once borders reopen and travel is back to normal, Blanca and Pedro can celebrate the rekindling of their relationship with a break in the French capital.

In fact, a couple kissing in the middle of a deserted motorway was one of the more 'conventional' scenes to come out of the unprecedented snow in Madrid this month and to end up on camera and going viral.

Javier Talanco, 39, said he had 'smoke billowing out of his WhatsApp' after being snapped guiding his husky-driven sleigh through the streets of his home neighbourhood, Hortaleza.

A rare – but not unheard-of – practice in Spain, Javier has competed at international level with his huskies and sled.

Getting about with several inches of snow on the ground can be exhausting, so dozens of Madrid residents found it easier to travel by cross-ski than by walking – giving rise to the surreal sight of people skiing down the Gran Vía, one of the city's busiest shopping streets between its normally bustling Puerta del Sol square and Plaza de España.

Most of the north was under a thick covering of snow for well over a week at the time, and anywhere inland of the coast from Madrid to the Pyrénées with a slope in it was a hive of activity as children took advantage of school closures to go sledging.