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by wnscooke
1436 days ago
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One aspect of flânerie is that it goes beyond strolling _for one's self_. The point isn't to stroll aimlessly with an empty mind. It in fact is to help one understand the city in which they are in, to better comprehend it, to feel it. You are in it in order to see it. I think the more often one practices flânerie the better they are at discerning what part of town they just wandered into, and can thus decide whether it is "safe" or not. One of my favorite flânerie times was wandering from the Arc De Triomphe to the Sacre Coeur in Paris. It took hours. I saw amazing scenes I'd never seen before, moments of tranquility, of bizarreness, of beauty, just because I didn't take the metro or e-scooter. Snacked in a super cool cafe that I'm sure wouldn't have appeared in any travel guide. Meandered through parks that also get no mention but were swelling with local life. I highly recommend visiting places like this. |
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I arrived at the train station, wandered around, found a hotel, checked in, went out, forgot to remember where my hotel was, wandered around some more, decided to go back to the hotel, then realized I had no clue where it was, so wandered around a hell of a lot more, finally wandered back to the train station, then retraced my wandering steps to the hotel, and found it again! No regrets, it was a wonderful time!
Along the route I found several different Space Invaders made of tiles on the sides of buildings at various locations around the city. There are also a bunch around Amsterdam and other cities, but I was surprised how many I just happened to run across in Paris, during that one long walk. Always look up on the sides of buildings, don't just stare at your feet, you'll spot more space invaders that way!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_(artist)
https://www.space-invaders.com/world/
https://www.space-invaders.com/world/paris/
https://www.space-invaders.com/world/amsterdam/
(press arrows to scroll!)