This concept of Flânerie is most deceptive. In this little book he unfolds the map of his own personal Paris – which may not be yours or mine, but which is an inspiration to go out and find one’s own. He is not a native Parisian, but he makes certain locations and layers of history his own. Edmund White is a multi-layered Flâneur, having learnt the art while living in the city for many years and discovering his own secret city. I wonder – is it possible to be a flâneur anywhere other than in France? Or more specifically in Paris? Yet one more untranslatable French word. Far from being a lightweight dilettante, the flâneur is someone who absorbs the experience of the city in a peculiarly intense way, and, if we are lucky, shares the results with us. It seems I’ve caught the zeitgeist – no sooner had I taken this book on holiday, but flânerie kept popping up – most recently in Laurie Taylor’s entertaining Radio 4 programme Thinking Allowed. This is an elegant little book, first published over ten years ago in a series from Bloomsbury called The Writer And The City “… an occasional series in which some of the finest writers of our time reveal the secrets of the city they know best.” As I love Paris, but never could aspire to put the considerable work in to become any sort of a flâneur myself, I was delighted when a friend passed this book on to me.
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