A few days ago, my Seattle friend Libby shared a New York Times article about a Kehinde Wiley show that was opening in Paris. While she was aboard a fisheries research ship off the coast of Alaska. You may recall Kehinde Wiley as he painted Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait. Later that evening I spotted this.

Because in Paris, they publicize the shit out of art openings. Clearly the universe was sending me a sign.

So a day later, when my new friend Dani from Meetup suggested we check out a museum on Saturday, I lobbed the Kehinde Wiley show, and she was totally up for it.

The show is at the Musee du Quai Branly, which is right next to the Eiffel. So just to prove that I am like really truly actually in Paris, I took this selfie on the way there.

And then this is the entrance to the museum, or at least to the garden that surrounds the museum…

I mean I’ve been to Paris SO many times, and I had no idea about the Musee du Quai Branly. And it’s not like it’s in some remote corner of Paris. It’s freaking right next to the Eiffel Tower! And the building and the garden were really cool. Definitely recommend. Sorry I didn’t take photos of the museum itself and the gardens!

But here’s what I know you were really waiting for, the Kehinde Wiley. These are portraits of current and former presidents of African nations, and okay, they weren’t all floral like some of these, but these were the ones I really grooved on.

And so, why is that I have to come to Paris to see really cool art by an American artist? Actually, a lot of the contemporary art that I’ve seen in Paris is by American artists. Which goes back to the question…

Dani actually lived in Ghana for a couple years and has travelled to other countries on the continent and so was able to give some color commentary on a number of the presidents whose portraits we were looking at, which was awesome. The one in the upper left is the president of Ghana. And he has been president a few times. Each time, he steps down after his term hoping to be able to pass the torch. And then it hasn’t worked out well. And so he steps in again to make things better.

After the museum, Dani and I went to a Pakistani restaurant for lunch. It’s funny, when I’ve been here on vacation, I’ve been pretty militant about trying to eat as much French food as I can in the two weeks I have. But now that I’m here (hopefully) indefinitely, I feel maybe I can branch out a bit.

After lunch, we headed our separate ways. I took a bus to an area down along the southern edge of Paris near the Porte d’Orléans to check out a neighborhood where an apartment I’m interested in is located.

Yesterday I went to an area called the Batignolles to check out the neighborhood for another apartment. I’d never been to either area in all my fifteen visits, and I’d thought I knew Paris pretty well, but apparently not so much.

While I’d wanted to like the Batignolles neighborhood, I mean it had a wonderful food street with produce markets, cheese shops, butchers, fish markets, chocolate shops, etc., I just wasn’t quite feeling it.

But the neighborhood around the Porte d’Orléans was lovely. It had all the lovely food markets, and it also felt relaxed, and friendly.

I mean, just two examples. As I was walking around, there was a guy riding on his bike, and he suddenly skidded and fell over. The kid in the back started bawling (though fortunately had a helmet on). Instantly, without even a thought, all these people on the street started rushing over to do what they could to help. It was so touching.

And then later, when I stopped for a beer, when the server brought it to me, she asked how I was doing. I mean it was just an ordinary “Comment allez-vous?” but it’s not part of the ordinary interaction you usually have. And there was a genuineness in the question. It was very sweet.

So it was lovely today to discover new things about Paris, and to see a side that I hadn’t known about.