When in Paris...

To 'flâneur' is to stroll, to wander or to saunter. A flâneur (or flâneuse) would quite happily wander the streets of a place, letting their instinct guide them. It is a concept that was originally conceived by French philosopher Charles Baudelaire, and became popularised after Walter Benjamin's 1929 essay Return of the Flâneur.

A growing number of 'walkers' that live or sight-see by this type of philosophy are using their online blogs to record their findings, particularly in and around the city that first inspired the concept. Photographer Hamish Stewart, author of Le Flâneur - the random urban photographer, was inspired to start his after a walking tour of Paris (see his Les Murs de Paris entry for some of the highlights of his work). Journalist Mark Willis is the 'Blind Flâneur'. Having lost his eyesight, Willis passionately describes how 'sauntering' around Paris streets leaves him 'enchanted and engaged by the raw material of the senses.' The retired husband and wife team behind Parisian Fields have made it their mission explore Paris 'one blog at a time', citing how the experiences of daily life, from encounter's with the city's cats to trying to park a car, turn us all into flâneurs.

After all who really wants to waste hours in queues for a 'must see', or spend a sunny day in a museum, just because you feel like you should?

Follow the link to Another Existence, authored by another self-confessed flâneur, 'SW', for a concise guide to being a flâneur.