A collection of writings about place space writing and art …
The cafes are full
With gourmets, with smokers;
The theaters are packed
With cheerful spectators.
The arcades are swarming
With gawkers, with enthusiasts,
And pickpockets wriggle
Behind the flaneurs.
– Ennorie and Lemoine, Paris la nuit. Cited by Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project, Harvard University Press, 2002.
When I first read Walter Benjamin and his writings about Baudelaire, the whole notion of the flaneur was a revelation for me. That was one of the most important books of my life.
– Philip Lopate
Until 1870, the carriage ruled the streets. On the narrow sidewalks, the pedestrian was extremely cramped, and so strolling took place principally in the arcades, which offered protection from bad weather and traffic. “Our larger streets and our wider sidewalks are suited to the sweet flanerie was impossible except in the arcades.” Flaneur, Edmond Beaurepaire, Paris d’hier et d’aujourd’hui: La Chronique de rues (Paris 1900), p.67.
– Quoted in Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, Harvard University Press
Naked Cities Journal 