Yesterday, I read a NYTimes article called The Art of Being a Flâneur.
Here's the definition of Flâneur:
noun,plural flâ·neurs [flah-nœr]. French. a person who lounges or strolls around in a seemingly aimless way; an idler or loafer: the flâneur, that cool, aloof observer of urban society.
As I was reading the article I thought, “That’s what we love to do - poke around and see what’s presented to us.” And, that’s what our camping buddies like to do too. Perfect!"
We are camping near Portland, ON. This morning, two of us were taking a walk outside the campground and came across a lady selling pies and butter tarts and fudge at the edge of the road. What better way to start a Flâneur adventure than picking up an ordered pie and some butter tarts ……….and some fudge.
Our only destination was to go to the Crosby Farmers’ Market, a short distance from the campground. It’s a mixture of flea market and farmers’ market. Lots of tempting home-made goodies.
For being in a tiny village, the Crosby Market is pretty decent. There is even a man selling rock and fossil specimens. Be still my heart. Rocks.
And a woodcarver selling Father Christmases.
After we’d finished exploring the market, we headed towards Delta. That road goes through Forfar and it wouldn’t be right to not stop at the Forfar Cheese Factory. Yum! Garlic curds!
The tiny village of Delta oozes charm. When the rest of our camping buddies arrive, we will probably go back and take an official tour of the mill. For today, we took in the scenery and wandered around inside, marvelling at the ingenuity of those who built it.
For a little town, there is a lot of public space, including this tiny park and gardens next to the mill pond.
The Bastard Café beckoned us with its promise of good soup. Bastard Café, you are wondering. We are in Bastard Township. Oh the places you go when you are a Flâneur! And, the people you see! Brenda did a double take when her doppelgänger walked into the café.
We wended our way in a northwesterly direction, always staying on country roads. Many times, our driver needed to back up because someone had spotted something - like this tiny graveyard down a lane through a farmer’s field. The first settler in Bastard township is buried here.
We even found a little wisdom in the graveyard. A bonus when you are a Flâneur!
Being Flâneurs means that the driver has to like backing up. Often someone will spot something that everyone should take some time to admire. Today we backed up for a large snake, a turtle, some ponies and horses, sleeping cattle, a cemetery, a fieldstone silo and sheep in a pasture.
Can you imagine building this silo back in the day?
And, even non-flâneur would back up when they saw this scene.
Right?
I can't wait until our other Flâneurs join us!
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