Flâneuses

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 Recently I have really enjoyed reading two books written by women on walking.

There's something particular about women walking, in some places still in the world, it is almost an impossible thing, and I have to admit that when I used to be walking the streets of Paris younger, there were some hairy days... and I would envy the freedom of women walking in London or other places in the UK.

One is called Flâneuses, of course! by Lauren Elkin which is, partly a memoir, and partly a history of women walking the streets, lovely pages on Virginia Woolf who was a keen walker. Like many Americans (from the US that is) she's in love with Paris, but somehow she doesn't behave like an 'American in Paris' which can be a bit annoying. She's walked everywhere in Paris it seems, as I did when I was younger -as any young adult living in the city- and it was lovely to feel some sort of nostalgia, but not too sad a nostalgia as I'm lucky enough to walk back on Parisian streets at least three times a year. Last time I walked there I even got lost for a while, walking the 16th arrondissement, till I found myself near the Arc de Triomphe. I guess the beauty of Paris for walkers, is that you can walk it, and anyone stuck in an American town can really feel the pain.... sometimes it is clearly not possible to walk in the USA.

Will Self was super-courageous (or bonkers? But I love the guy) when walking from London to New York? The most dangerous part was not the 26 miles South London to Heathrow but from Kennedy airport to a nearby Plaza hotel, all this to be found in his book Psychogeography made from articles written for the press.

There are also reflections about the difficulty to walk in some (-most?) American town in Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit it's also part-memoir that book but she focuses more on the history of walking, though it does not appear encyclopedic (meant as an insult here, i.e. heavy and boring and scary). Beautiful pages on walking in San Francisco (a walkable city I testify) and on the past of walking in there, with talks about the promenading on weekend with the whole city being there, on show.

I've learned more about Kierkegaard the walker (though I have to admit I still have not read anything from him) but also Rousseau (I have read some of his reveries, well bits of) all the way to the psychogeographers of today though I can't remember much about Brits in there. Nevermind. 

Two agreeable books with some reflection on gender, sorry monsieur Self, you do not have to be a man to be a wanderer... 




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