Flaneuring

flâ·neur

My new word: flaneur
fläˈnər,-ˈnœr/

The term flaneur was popularized by the poet Baudelaire in the 19th century, meaning someone who is wandering the streets, not with the intent of getting somewhere, but as an observer and philosopher. The novelist Diane Johnson, in her book Le Divorce, offers an alternative definition of "mess[ing] around with no guilty sense of being unoccupied." (source: Flaneur-ing in one easy lesson)

This is the article where I found the term 'flaneuring' used, and caught my interest (which also happens to be very good!): Seven Reasons to Visit Mexico City

It's a term I wasn't familiar with, but instantly identified with.

This is what I do when I travel.

The breathtaking Matisse ceiling in the Opera Garnier

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have found the cat sanctuary in Rome...

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have found that bar on the canal in Venice...

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have discovered the Opera Garnier in Paris...

If I wasn't flaneuring, I wouldn't have discovered a couple of amazing little bars in Greece (and met some very handsome Greeks)...

I have loosely used 'slow travel' to try to describe why I stay so long in one place, a month if I can, otherwise 2 weeks... a week anywhere really isn't enough for me! I am well beyond slow travel... I am flaneuring!

I can not wait until I flaneur again in a new destination...