"Flâneur" and "traceur" (parkour) are perfectly good words for admirable activities. No need for any post-modern angst or contrived socio-political analysis. Y

"Flâneur" and "traceur" (parkour) are perfectly good words for admirable activities. No need for any post-modern angst or contrived socio-political analysis. Yes, they are both mostly male pursuits, because the first requires free time, curiosity, and a little frisson of physical danger in a strange neighborhood. The latter requires free time, strength, agility, a certain obsessiveness, and outright physical peril - often realized. Both are French words, for originally French activities, but I'm not sure why exactly. In what sense are these characteristically or necessarily French?