Obama went to Paris (I live in downtown Paris) several times I think, and there have been multiple reunions of numerous heads of state here, I don't remember any particular perturbations, other than 5 or 7 subway station blocked. The most notable was after the november 2015 attacks, there was some trouble because Obama kept changing* schedule.
Not to downplay this, but maybe in some cities it is more doable than others.
*guessing they weren't "changing" the schedule and they were in fact keeping it very tight and putting out another schedule altogether
Yeah. Clearly some cities (like Paris) are more accustomed to receiving these sorts of visitors and, probably, have more permanent infrastructure in place to handle the visits with minimal interruption. I live in Washington, D.C. and, obviously, my city is not shut down whenever the president is in town. At most, we have to deal with a closed road and some loud sirens for a few minutes when the president is literally driving past.
I live in Chicago, and the biggest inconvenience is when the weather is bad and they have to drive. That's honestly much more burdensome for people who live in the suburbs than people who live in the city itself. I've not even known Obama was in town until I rode my bike in to a checkpoint a block or so away from where he was eating lunch.
I honestly get much more annoyed when the secret service do their thing for presidential candidates, because the candidates tend to travel around a bit more and screw things up that way.
I'm guessing it's different when it's a capital city as they are used to handling heads of state and other officials e.g. POTUS in DC and POTUS in LA are different situations.
Not to downplay this, but maybe in some cities it is more doable than others.
*guessing they weren't "changing" the schedule and they were in fact keeping it very tight and putting out another schedule altogether