PTE Reading MC Multiple Answers: The flaneur is almost extinct now. It is not just that men – and they usually were men …

The flaneur is almost extinct now. It is not just that men – and they usually were men – no longer have the time or the inclination to idly stroll the city streets, taking in the sights and sounds at a leisurely pace while the crowd hurries to and fro about its business. Cities have changed their nature too and, for the most part, people today walk as little as possible. Baudelaire, the 19th-century French poet, was probably the first to describe the flaneur in his essay The Painter of Modern Life, and he himself would often saunter and loiter in the arcades of Paris absorbing the frantic bustle going on around him. The flaneur is the detached, ironic observer in the midst of the crowd, rambling through the city seeing where the streets take him. There is no specific aim in mind; it is not like the evening promenade that still occurs in many Mediterranean towns, where the purpose is to see and be seen. Besides, promenaders usually amble arm in arm with a chaperone. The flaneur is a solitary walker. As mentioned above, cities have changed and are far less congenial for walking nowadays. Baudelaire’s Paris of arcades and narrow, crooked streets disappeared with Baron Haussmann’s wholesale redevelopment of the city. These days, despite the provision of public spaces such as parks, city dwellers would rather go to the countryside and hike up and down hills and valleys where the air is fresh and there are no crowds.