The flâneur and the boulevardier
In March I did a post on flânerie – the literary stroller and his environment. It was a new concept to me, but since then I’ve seen a couple of references to it. One of these introduces another stroller – the boulevardier and analyses the difference between them.
Add to these the urban explorer and the window shopper and you have a city full of wanderers. Striding past them are those who have a destination and roaming between them, the homeless.
The countryside doesn’t seem to be full of wandering – people work or hike or rush through in cars.
The cities mentioned in the various sources are modern and European – the flâneur and boulevardier seem to be 19th century French and the window shopper 20th century big cities. Were there such roamers in ancient Rome? in mediaeval Paris? or 18th century Beijing?
e a m harris 