What is Le Flaneur? –
Le Flaneur is a saunter through our recent wanderings, special moments, and new titbits we think of interest for Gentlemans Butler.
At the core of Gentlemans Butler, which Le Flaneur espouses, is a belief in a gentler, calmer, and often slower world where we can take time to enjoy what we have.
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Why was it started? –
In early 2013 I interviewed Philip Blackwell of Blackwell Books at The Ampersand Hotel in Kensington.
As with many meetings with new people I give a preamble about my likes and explain my social butterfly attitude to life in that I like to wander and find the great, distinctive, and unique.
After this, Philip mentioned I must read a book called Le Flaneur, which he kindly sent me.
When I decided I would start a newsletter journal I wanted to find a word that gave it a little bit more je ne sais quoi. I thought “Le Flaneur” was a perfect fit as this is exactly what it is, a recap of our wanderings and new titbits for famille Gentlemans Butler.
Why is it called “Le Flaneur”? –
Flâneur (pronounced [flɑnœʁ]), from the French noun flâneur, means “stroller”, “lounger”, “saunterer”, or “loafer”. Flânerie is the act of strolling, with all of its accompanying associations. A near-synonym is ‘boulevardier’. He is an ambivalent figure of urban riches representing the ability to wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of society.
The flâneur was, first of all, a literary type from 19th-century France, essential to any picture of the streets of Paris. The word carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street. It was Walter Benjamin, drawing on the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, who made this figure the object of scholarly interest in the 20th century, as an emblematic archetype of urban, modern experience.[1] Following Benjamin, the flâneur has become an important symbol for scholars, artists and writers. Recent scholarship has also proposed the flâneuse, a female equivalent to the flâneur.[2][3][4]
“The lover of life makes the whole world his family”, said Baudelaire of the true flâneur, the emblematic Parisian urban observer. You can find them ambling on the banks of the Seine, strolling along the boulevards, or in the unrushed cafés.
The flâneur is the connoisseur of the street; the term implies a quietly confident freedom and refinement. They mostly cut a solitary figure and carry a book or newspaper as a prop to alight on a park bench or a sidewalk table and people-watch. There’s no city quite like Paris to practice the cosmopolitan art of flâner.
In Le Peintre dans la Vie Moderne, Baudelaire offered a rather poetic view of this quintessential Parisian character:
When was it started? –
Le Flaneur launched in Summer 2017 (Gentlemans Butler launched Autumn 2011)
When does it go out?
We aim to produce two “Le Flaneur’s” every month
How to sign up? –
There is no fee to sign up and you can easily be removed, which you can do yourself by a click of a button.
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