Lost in Paris

Paris, January, 2017

Wandering the St. Germain neighborhood in Paris, I get lost.  Somehow I stumble upon a street with colorful hanging lampshades.  Standing there, in the middle of the street, I am mesmerized.  Not just by the fantastic colors and patterns, but by the seemingly randomness of their placement.  

Why?  Why are these here?  Did somebody just decide one day to string these things up?  Are they part of a festival?  Are they promoting a performance?

Turns out, none of the above.  When I got home to Austin, I looked them up.  Of course, Google is your friend and by just tapping in "lampshades hanging in the streets of Paris" you get your answer.  These lampshades are part of the "Linen Lux" in Paris which promotes the new textile designs for the fabric industry.  

Had I been smarter, I probably could've figured that our myself as there were several fabric and interior design stores on the block where the lampshades were dangling.  But, on the other hand, I kinda enjoyed the bliss of my ignorance and imagining some solitary artist hanging the lampshades himself as an artistic statement.

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