Dans le jardin de ta pensée

Mes lapins, it is back to school with me. Having some structure again spurs me, in general, to get more done. So here I am, presenting some findings.

Several of you suggested the Jardin du Luxembourg. This is for all of you, but surtout for Katie, who suggested it first.

To live an experience in order to recount it later is to don a pair of mental bifocals. On one hand, you focus on your own sensations, your own present experience, your own habits, in interpreting the world around you. On the other, you understand that you see that others may see.

Remember we are flânant, not speed-walking. So be prepared to take your time.

Follow me.

Où flâner?

Chers lecteurs, kindly be sure to read the end of this post, as I have a favor to ask of you.

Winter, listlessness, and a very sticky illness have kept me from being up and about all day during my school vacation. Not to mention that when you haven’t got much money and you’re trying to shed some winter pounds, your activity options get cut down a bit.

But the weather is warming; the days are lengthening. In response, I have become, once again, a flâneur.

When I didn’t yet have a Navigo pass, which allows one unlimited Métro access, I walked nearly everywhere. Even though I bought my tickets in carnets of 10, it still cost 1,20 euros per trip—which makes you think before descending down those steps. And in walking everywhere, I found weird and wonderful stuff: taxidermy and antique shops, chocolatiers and confiseries, surprising boutiques and cafés and churches and public buildings of all kinds. I got lost a lot in those days, without the iPhone with its maps and search and compass that can now get me un-lost in a matter of seconds (and even give me a tip for a good nearby café). But even now that I can orient myself easily—especially now, since I know how to get somewhere else quickly if I need to—it’s good fun to wander into places I have no reason to be.

For the past couple of days, I have not once ridden the Métro. I have walked through and around seven or eight arrondissements, right and left bank. Today I walked up the route of ligne 8, meandered through the 1e and 2e, then threaded from the Opéra Garnier down to Les Deux Magots and walked home roughly along the route of ligne 12. I took pictures and detours and paused in front of pretty windows, looking for all the world like a tourist.

Mes loups, I am having a marvelous time of it.

Therefore, I want to try something new. This week, while I still have a bit of time to do nothing in particular, I would like a new idea: a generative constraint, if you will.

So here's my call to arms. In the comments section, pitch a route for me to flâner. It can be a quartier, an arrondissement, or even a specific street or monument as a starting point.

I will pick one of your suggestions, flâner, and post in greater-than-usual detail.

The City of Lights

Paris is not entirely clean of Christmas, even now at the cusp of the second week of February. A full month after Epiphany, the traditional galettes des rois, a flaky round pastry filled with a crumbly marzipan, still peek at onlookers from patisserie windows. Just yesterday, while strolling through the back streets of the 15e, I spotted a tiny nativity scene still installed, a blithe seasonal anachronism, in the shop window of a confiserie.

But little by little, they have mostly disappeared. I’ll tell you what I loved the most—and now miss the most. The lights.

Here's an impressionistic, woefully incomplete sample.