The flaneur is an observer who wanders the streets of a great city on a mission to notice with childlike enjoyment the smallest events and the obscurest sights he encounters. Baudelaire, a resident nine-teenth-century flaneur, observed,
"For the flaneur it's an immense pleasure to take up residence in multiplicity, in whatever is seething, moving, evanescent and infinite. You're not at home but you feel at home everywhere; you see everyone, you're at the center of everything, yet you remain hidden from everybody."
This is one astute definition of the writer: an observer who ventures everywhere while remaining invisible...It is in Paris that the delicious, dreamy strolling of the flaneur can be perfected. Indeed, you may never become the poet of your dreams until you become a poet of flaneurie. It is the exercise regimen of the artist.
- Eric Maisel
* My bags are nearly packed and I'm off to Paris tomorrow!