Flaneuse

An intoxication comes over the man who walks long and aimlessly through the streets. With each step, the walk takes on greater momentum; ever weaker grow the temptations of shops, of bistros, of smiling women, ever more irresistible the magnetism of the next streetcorner, of a distant mass of foliage, or a street name.

-Walter Benjamin

The flaneur (from the French "to stroll") was seen as a detached observer of modern life yet has an inextricable role in understanding, participating, and ultimately helping to form the city it observes. The idea of the flaneur in Paris influenced modernists from Baudelaire to Benjamin, and us here at Le Train Bleu, although we tend to think more on the part of the flaneuse. Check back as we'll try to capture a flaneuse spirit out of the streets of Portland.