Observing Flair: The Tourist as the Flaneur

Discovering the Flair of a City Through Walking
The Tourist as the Flaneur

Whenever I travel to a new city, I like to reach a sense of accomplishment. Accomplishment in the sense of knowing that I have seen everything I could possibly see. I often contemplate over what is the best way of discovering and understanding a city. There are many different methods: walking, taking a bus, observing from a distance, or some other method of transportation. After spending the day walking through the city of Valletta, I have come to the conclusion that there’s something pleasurable about strolling and wandering around a place that you are unfamiliar with. You take in each step with curiosity, immersing yourself with the surroundings.

I noticed the way people spoke to each other, salesmen, kids running, people trying to cool down from the heat, etc. I looked at the restaurant menus (a lot of them had the same things to offer), at street signs, and how fast the cars were driving next to me. I saw how the colors of all the buildings blended together to create beautiful shades of beige. The overwhelming color of beige makes objects with other vibrant colors extremely stand out. I noticed how friendly the restaurant workers were and how unfriendly some of locals were towards tourists. I noticed how the majority of the advertisements were in English and the rest in Maltese. One thing that struck out to me was all of the small bits of Catholic iconography spread throughout the city. There were many images of Jesus on taxis, almost all of the taxis had a small picture of their God on it. I saw many crosses, churches, and photographs of the Mother Mary plastered on walls. I even noticed many cars with a bumper sticker stating “Jesus loves you.” All of this religious symbolism pursued me to find out how Catholic Malta really is. From what I have read online, more than 98 percent of Maltese people abide by the Catholic religion, making Malta an extremely Catholic country. Observing this iconography makes it obvious that Catholicism is the state religion. I also noticed how many animals were strolling around, especially cats. The locals have even gone so far as to put little cat beds everywhere around the city so they had a safe place to sleep.

What does walking offer that other methods don’t? When I thought about this I imagined the tourist taking up the position as the flaneur. The flaneur is a French term, discovered in the 19^th century and to be used in a literary sense. It basically means “strolling” or the act of doing so. There is not a good enough word or a clear enough definition in English to describe exactly what a flaneur is. A flaneur “strolls” around the city in order to experience something from the city. Walking around offers time for contemplation and getting a sense of things. I saw things that I would have not seen other wise. I saw things between all the tourist attractions, where life is being lived.

The flaneur doesn’t have a purpose but this is where the difference comes in when a tourist takes up such a position. The tourist does have a purpose. I had reasoning as to why I would stroll through the city, I wanted to learn from my observations.

At some points I would have to admit I was not as aware as I would have liked to be, but that’s because I spent a big amount of time attempting to film every step of the journey. What I like about that is that I can look back at these videos and reflect and observe even more. I noticed people looking at me, or looking into the camera.

This is why I would like to create a small film for the end project, as the only way of truly expressing myself is through art and it is the most ideal way to showcase my observations of my role as a tourist/flaneur.