Paris – Lo Vedo Life

April in Paris

A spring trip to Paris
I recently returned from a few days in Paris, one of my favorite cities. There was a great deal of walking, a lot of delicious things to eat, and delightful companionship. I got drenched in a sudden cloudburst the day I arrived, but otherwise the weather was nicely cooperative. All around, a dandy trip.

One of the things I wanted to do was to see the new exhibit at the Musée Picasso. He’s not my favorite artist, but the man certainly had a large impact on 20th-century art, and this year marks the 50th anniversary since his death. Exhibits abound, but this one promised to be unique for two reasons. One, this museum holds a huge collection of Picasso works, covering the full range of his life, as well as the remarkably broad range of art forms he worked in. Two, this exhibit is the work of British designer Paul Smith, and I thought it would be interesting to see how he chose to display the art.

May mixed bag

In the Butte aux Cailles neighborhood of Paris, a woman walks past “Fight 4 Your Rights,” by Paris street artist Kelu Abstract. It’s one of many installations opposing the Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The merry month of May
For this post, I have a real mix of things to share with you: some travels within France, the French election, the wonders of nature… and a national championship. First up are a few things I saw on a spring visit to Paris.

Christmas in Alsace

A colorful scene along the canal in Colmar.

Some friends and I had planned a magical voyage to celebrate the holidays: Christmas in Alsace, followed by New Year’s in Paris. As the departure day approached, I felt like a giddy child, squirming with anticipation at the delights to come.

Street Art in Paris

I’m a big fan of street art, and the place I know best is the city where I first discovered just how great street art can be: Paris, bien sûr! Come along with me to visit my own piece of Parisian street art, and to see some art I photographed this past June.

Above: a gorgeous, larger-than-life bison wall mural in the 12th arrondissement. I had trouble finding the artist’s name, but my friend Dan found it: he is Ruben Carrasco.

June in Paris

In April, after months of lockdowns and curfews, France was a-buzz with chatter about reopening. The government began to announce the slow and deliberate steps that would begin to ease us back to some semblance of a “normal” life, always with the caveat that increasing covid numbers could lead to a retraction. There was a rising sense of hopefulness, perfectly timed to coincide with spring. Thus it was that a few of us hatched a scheme to visit Paris in June.

The eerily quiet streets of Paris

Covid Spacing — Usually restaurants in Paris have tiny tables all crammed together against the banquette along the wall. Here’s the covid spacing in one restaurant I visited.

Paris in the time of Covid

I spent the Covid lockdown of late winter and spring 2020 in the rural South of France, in a region that had few cases and very few deaths. Ours was one of the first regions to be declared “green,” which meant that we got to ease out of the restrictions a little more quickly than other parts of France that were labelled orange or red.

As the confinement came to a close in mid-May, my friend Olivier suggested that this summer might be a good time to visit Paris. In my mind, Paris is always a good idea (thank you, Audrey Hepburn!), but I really waffled about whether to make this trip. Traveling from a region with low numbers for the disease into a red-zone city that saw a high number of cases and deaths was enough of a risk to give me pause. Eventually I decided to go, mainly to see what Paris would look like without the crowds. Today’s post is a little journal of my visit to the City of Light.

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