A 'flâneur' is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the place and in covert search of aesthetic or erotic adventure. 

Edmund White, who lived in Paris for 16 years, guides the reader to both the famous landmarks and to parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. As he conducts us through the bookshops and boutiques, past the monuments and palaces, he recounts the gossip and background associated with each site, including personal memoirs and anecdotes of gay Paris, past and present. 

He visits the Hotel de Lauzun, home to Baudelaire as a young man, and discusses the poet’s dandyism and struggle with syphilis. White describes his own favorite cruising spots as well as those of Louis XIV’s homosexual brother, and notes that Napoleon officially decriminalised homosexuality.

This is a unique and eclectic view of Paris seen through the eyes of a fierce and witty intellect.

Author: Edmund White

Hardcover, 224 Pages, Originally Published 2001, This Edition Published December 2015