F is for flânerie

‘Botanizing on the asphalt’ is how writer Walter Benjamin described flânerie – the art of wandering aimlessly through a city and revelling in the urban environment as a ‘passionate spectator’. First popularized by French poet Charles Baudelaire in the 19th century, a flâneur tended to be a gentlemen of privilege, and hence leisure, in Paris, where ‘The crowd is his element, as the air is that of birds and water of fishes.’ But anyone with an idle hour in any city can try it now. Doesn’t it sound appealing to drift through the streets, squares and snickets with no particular place to go? No appointments to race to or sights to tick off, but letting your feet go where your fancy leads as you watch the fascinating world go by. Urban landscapes inspired great writers like Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens so who knows where a bit of flânerie might lead you.

WALK HERE: Pick a city. Walk where you like!