Quality & Style

Every other Saturday is Gentlemanly Pursuits day here at Q&S , when we cover such wide-ranging topics as sport, smoking, hobbies of all types, outdoor life, those sorts of things. (And I hope it goes without saying that none of these is the exclusive territory of those with a Y-chromosome, but this is Q&S , which is concerned with the modern gentleman - so the slant should come as no surprise.) We're kicking off our first Saturday of Gentlemanly Pursuits with a couple of great videos from around the web that highlight that classic pastime of the French (among others, now) countryside; Parkour . I suppose that when many people think of the sporting pursuits of the gentleman the fist things to spring to mind are golf or hunting (especially if horses and hounds are involved) or possibly fisticuffs if the gentleman in question came from a martial background or was perhaps a little 'hot tempered'. Go back a bit further and dueling might even come up. And these would all be true if we were printing this in an actual newspaper that would then be hawked by a grimy urchin in knickers and a hounds tooth cap. But we're not. Today a gentleman might do literally anything for sport and relaxation, so long as he doesn't act in an unsportsmanlike way while doing it. He might be perfectly happy, for instance, running through the street or forest, jumping over or crawling under or going around (or through) whatever gets in his way. (Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like a steeplechase without the horse .) Or he might practice yoga. Or take up rally driving, or mountain biking, or cave diving. Fortunately, we live in a time where there are almost no restrictions on what it is acceptable for a gentle to do. Today, let's take a brief look at Parkour . From the wikipedia article: > "Parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment. It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed. The object of parkour is to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment. The obstacles can be anything in one's environment, but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of the many suitable public structures available such as buildings and rails. The term freerunning is sometimes used interchangeably with parkour. While superficially similar, freerunning places more emphasis on the aesthetics of movement and finding creative ways to overcome obstacles than on efficiency and simplicity. However, there is some controversy over the exact definitions of the two terms. A practitioner of parkour is called a traceur if male, or traceuse if female." Be sure to check out wikipedia's entire overview. It's interesting to see the background related to the Belle family and the rapid expansion that this has undergone. Now, a couple of great video examples.