Cheese is always a good idea

French cheeses and champagne.

Above: a relaxed cool August evening at home, à deux

Street heat

With temperatures soaring and annual August flight, Paris streets are (gloriously) deserted.

Eyes without a face #2

This man with kind eyes from a previous post, The flower vendor, now wearing a mask.

Social distance

Parisians' reputation for being distant, even rude (the latter usually the conclusion of outsiders who've not mastered basic niceties) has been noticeably put on hold thanks to the virus. As soon as the confinement was lifted there was a distinct shift in our quartier: familiar eyes and voices behind masks stopping to engage in long conversations, neighbors suggesting a drink together and, as everyone knows someone, terrace tables filling up and suddenly, it's lunch time. BPJ

Above: get-togethers at different spots almost every day in Montmartre; tables pushed together for a spontaneous light group lunch

Below: an elderly couple who rarely venture out enjoy a long lunch; coffees and tea for 8  

Picture perfect

The façade of this café-restaurant behind Notre Dame Cathedral has become the subject of many a photograph evoking romantic old Paris.

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In August newsletter: reprint of my article, "Paris is Picture Perfect" © 2004

Farewell to Joséphine

While Napoléon might have been crazy about his impératrice Joséphine de Beauharnais a.k.a. "Yeyette," descendants of French colonialism are not, and on Sunday her beheaded statue, a reminder of that era, was toppled in Martinique, her birthplace.

Above: close-up from "The Empress Joséphine" by Pierre-Paul Prud'Hon

Musée du Louvre

Due to Covid-19 all visitors are now required to book a time slot and wear a mask

Parasol perfect

A splash of color outside a small shop near the Picasso Museum in the Marais district.