The Art of Flaneuring

I love walking. It gives me a chance to think, clear my head, and breathe in some air. I especially do this when I start feeling shitty about the mundanity my life sometimes find itself in. I am sure people do this often. However,  I feel that I actually walk more when on vacation.  I walk as much as possible to experience the city as it goes about its day. The French has a term for this and it’s called “flaneur”. It literally means “a person who strolls or saunters” (derived from the French word flaner, which means “to walk”). Many poets and writers gave their take on the definition of flaneur but for me, flaneuring is about being one with a particular city. It is about immersing myself with the good, bad, beautiful, and ugly sides of a city. That is how I enrich the “cultured” me.

I flaneured the hell out of my holiday last April. I have been to Paris and London numerous times before but I appreciated these places more so now than before. I “rediscovered” old places and uncovered new sights. My last day in Paris probably best exemplified the “flaneur” in me. I came back from Giverny in the early afternoon and made my way to the Marais district to window-shop. I ended up walking from the Marais to Champs Elysees (where I was staying). I took tons of photos, bought two pieces of artwork from a bouquinist (riverside vendor of old books, cartoon, comic books, and artworks) by the Seine, and had more pastries from Pierre Herme than I could consume, to name a few.

Here are some snaps I took:

St. Sulpice

Lion effigy in front of St. Sulpice

Empty street somewhere in Latin Quarter

Les bouquinistes along the river Seine

The flaneur

 

River Seine in the afternoon

My not-so-trusty converse taking a break

 

The flaneur took a break to stare at this magnificent view

One of the galleries at the Louvre and blue sky

Musee D’Orsay

Pont Alexander

Beautiful lampposts on Pont Alexander

 

The closest I came to the Eiffel Tower

 

Grand Palais

 

My view from my room

Happy travels!