The cars that ate Paris

THE French capital gave birth to the flâneur, that casual wanderer of the modern town whose “immense joy” is to stroll the streets “amid the ebb and flow of movement”, in the words of Baudelaire. Paris remains a delight on foot, with its narrow cobbled alleys and pedestrian bridges across the Seine. But most of the ebb and flow these days comes from traffic roaring along the main boulevards. Now, in an effort to awaken its inhabitants’ inner flâneurs, Paris is to hold its first car-free day, on September 27th.