Harnessing the power of the flaneur

If you have already been to Paris, you will know that the city has a kind of magnetic power that pushes visitors to stroll around without a fixed destination.

It might be that at almost every corner there is something to marvel at, something you never noticed before even if you have visited many times, and sometimes even if you, like me, have been residing here permanently for more than 10 years.

Flaneurs were in vogue long before the concept of slow travel became fashionable. The definition was coined in the 19th century, to describe the kind of Parisian men-about-town with time on their hands, time they'd spend wandering the streets of the city, witnesses of its transformation into the modern capital we know today.

In 2023, the art of being a flaneur does not come natural, as we all strive to be efficient, to pack as many activities and meetings in each day. Even our downtime, because most people take only a few vacation days each year, needs to be carefully planned to extract as much as possible from the few vacation days we take each year. Walking around aimlessly feels like a waste of time.

But, as a traveller, some of my most vivid memories are of casual encounters, like a pizzeria I stumbled upon by chance in Trastevere, en route to my hotel but hopelessly lost in the maze of narrow streets, attracted by the irresistible smell wafting out, or the azulejo covered inner courtyard of a building in Lisbon, PortugaI I was allowed in by a resident who had caught me peeking at from en entrance door left ajar.

Serendipitous moments like these come about when we allow ourselves the time and the opportunity to be surprised. Like good flaneurs, we need to be able to embrace the unexpected.

Chance encounters by definition cannot be planned so how can we, as travel advisors, empower our clients to have this kind of epiphanies?

I find that careful planning, providing up-to-date information on what the locals do and the places they frequent and, most of all, leaving plenty of downtime for self-led exploration will often get your clients, once they arrive at their destination, in the right frame of mind to stumble upon their own discoveries, those that will make their trip memorable because they are only theirs.