Archive for the 'slowing down' Category

The Art of Strolling

Mark K June 9th, 2007

strolling

The French actually have a name for the art of strolling – they call it flanerie and the person who strolls is a flaneur. The idea of flanerie is to stroll or wander with the intention of being curious about and open to all that you encounter, but without having any particular goal. It’s hard to find an adequate English translation for flanerie – loitering is one possiblity – but in this country we post signs warning that this is a potentially criminal activity!

In his book The Flaneur, Edmund White states the opinion that Americans are particularly ill-suited to be flaneurs, because we are so driven towards self-improvement.  So, I’m left with a bit of a quandry – is it possible to work at being a better flaneur?

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Slow Travel

Mark K September 24th, 2006


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Slow travel – sounds like a trip on Amtrak, but it’s actually a different approach to travel related to the Slow Food movement. Instead of trying to hit every sight in the country – 14 cities in 14 days – you stay in one place for a week or so. Get to know the neighborhood, shop for groceries in the same store, have coffee at the little cafe down the street, meet the neighbors, then start exploring in concentric circles, ranging a little farther from “home”. It sounds relaxing and peaceful, but what about those other 13 cities that you never get to? Has anyone tried traveling slow-style?

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