Flâneur Friday: Learning to Wander in My Own Backyard

We were out to lunch one day at the Algonquin Sub Shop when I said it felt like we were on vacation. Tom smiled and reminded me of a podcast we’d heard on our 28-day road trip back in 2015: Tim Ferriss talking with Vagabonding author Rolf Potts. In Part 2 of that conversation, they talk about the flâneur, the French idea of a deliberate wanderer who strolls city streets with no destination and no clock to answer to. Potts’s advice for travelers is simple: “If in doubt, just walk until your day becomes interesting.”

That stuck with me. I’ve been trying to get out with my camera more, and I kept coming back to the same thought: you can’t always be on an exotic vacation. But maybe you can borrow the feeling of one.

A Little Help from Julia Cameron

Around the same time, I was thinking about the Artist Date from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. It’s a weekly, solo, roughly two-hour excursion meant to refill your creative well. The rules are simple:

• Go alone. No friends, no partners, no pets, no podcasts.
• Protect the time. Make it a weekly commitment.
• Choose play over productivity. The goal is wonder, not finishing something.
• Start small. A hardware store, a plant nursery, or a children’s bookstore counts.

Put a flâneur’s curiosity together with an Artist Date’s intention and you get Flâneur Friday.

My cousin gave me Detours: A Notebook for the Curious Traveler for my birthday, and it has become my official Flâneur Friday companion. It’s a notebook made for noticing, which is exactly what these outings are for.

The Adventures So Far

Outing #1: Arlington Heights. Breakfast, a wander through downtown looking for free art, and a stop at the Japanese bookstore inside Mitsuwa Marketplace.

Outing #2: Bartlett. A visit to the Hindu temple.

Outing #3: Bartlett, take two. I set out for a forest preserve and a Yemeni coffee shop, but neither was meant to be. Instead I landed at a random café and a tiny independent bookshop, which is exactly what flâneuring is supposed to deliver.

Outing #4: Wauconda/Antioch – a trip to a forest preserve, a coffee shop, a sawmill, and a wonder around a new-to-me town

Thoughts on How It’s Going

A few honest reflections so far:

It’s costing me more than I’d like. Eating out is expensive these days. From here on I’m going to focus on independent coffee shops instead of sit-down meals.

I want to wander and take photos. When I was a Framer in the 52Frames challenge, I wrote about whether you’re a hunter or a farmer: do you plan and cultivate your shot, or head out and hunt for something that fits the theme? I’m a hunter at heart, and I miss that. Flâneur Friday is my excuse to hunt again.

I want to write in the café. With two poetry books to dive into and my children’s book assignments, a corner table and a hot drink sounds like the perfect writing office.

And I want to chase the end of fall as it slips into winter. The last of the color, then bare branches, frost, and that low, golden November light. I’ll have my camera and my notebook.

If you’ve got a favorite independent coffee shop, a quirky little town, or a spot worth a wander within about 30 miles of Elgin, I’d love to hear about it. Flâneur Friday is just getting started.