25 Fun Flaneur Finds In Palm Springs!
One of the things I love doing when visiting a city is to just flaneur (wander aimlessly) the streets, parks, plazas, pathways and alleys to see what I can find that amuses me. Great cities are fun places to walk and enjoy their fun urban surprises - things like a front yard sculpture or a graffiti mural hidden in an alley. Or it could be something strange like a grand piano in a thrift store. Boutique windows are great places to find some unexpected fun.
Palm Springs was full of fun flaneur finds, here are 25 (more or less, I didn’t count) of the best ones.
Found this fun find within an hour of arriving in Palm Springs. We were sitting having lunch and this Amazon Truck pulled up. I couldn’t help but smile.
When I posted this one on social media, someone responded “Is Santa nude, or do you have to be nude or both!” I am thinking it is optional.
I’d love to live on the corner of Leisure Way and High Road.
Found this father and son creating their artwork in a graffiti park just off of Main Street. I think it is above an huge underground parking garage that was suppose to have a building above it, but is now left to graffiti artist to decorate.
Found this pay phone in the washroom at the Melvyn’s Restaurant and Bar. Unfortunately it is just decoration.
Yes I did find a grand piano in a thrift store.
Another fun thrift store find was a collection of 15+ piggy banks for sale. Link: History Fun Facts of Piggy Banks
I love finding surrealistic reflections in the windows of boutiques. Link: Learn more about Window Licking aka Faire du lèche-vitrines
I love browsing the book section of thrift stores to see what they have. Not surprisingly the books often reflect the culture of the city or town. In Palm Springs there were lots of art and urban design books. I wish I had bought this book. It would have been a great read
I was surprised to find this book in a Palm Springs thrift store. It had great picture of Expo 67, which brought back memories of my first visit to Montreal at the age of 13.
I really must do a blog about 36 hours in Calgary.
What are the chances of finding not one but two books about dumpster diving.
Any yes I have gone dumpster diving, for an huge vintage chair I had seen at the local flea market and for some reason thought the vendor might throw it in the dumpster rather than take it home. I was right!
Who sends postcards anymore?
We stumbled on the “Plant This” store on our way to the Vintage district. Loved this fence garden.
Inside the shop there are more fun flaneur finds like the plants with messages like this one. Others say “I am vibrant, I am thick, I am greatful etc.” Very fun!
Who remembers the Flames played the Sharks in Tokyo in 1998? I was tempted, but didn’t add to my collection.
What a surprise to turn the corner in the Vintage district and find these guys waiting for us to take a picture with them. What a great use of an empty lot.
I couldn’t resist getting my picture taken with Marilyn.
This is the entrance to the U.S. Bank at the corner of Ramon Rd and Indian Canyon Dr. You could easily miss it as it is hidden behind an old narly tree. One figure is male and one is female and the individual sections tell the story of the history of the valley. It is very well done.
Not far away at 500 S Indian Canyon Dr. if you wander to the side the Eisenhower Medical Centre building (which nobody would do but for some reason we did) you will find this sculpture donated by the Agua Caliente Band of the Cahuilla Indians.
Detail of the sculpture.
In a passageway just off of Indian Canyon Drive I found this metal sculpture by Julian Voss-Andreae in front of the HOHMANN gallery. It was fascinating to walk around the sculpture and see how it evolves.
Who knew that each of the decorate block patterns in Palm Desert has a name?
One of the decorative features of Palm Springs’ mid-century homes are the decorative concrete screen blocks at the front of the house.
They define a front patio that has some privacy while allowing the sunlight and wind to filter in, creating a comfortable space. Learn more: Screen Blocks
Palm Springs is known for being a Mecca of mid-century modern design, not only in the architecture and vintage clothing but in signage and typography. This was just one of many fun mid-century finds.
There are lots of funky mail boxes in front of Palm Springs’ mid-century modern home neighbourhoods. This one is very practical as letters can be dropped in from the top with larger packages placed in the bottom.
Loved the mid-century colours and the simple use of arrow to make this entrance welcoming.
This mega soup can (see my shadow for scale) is a playful hybridization of Andy Warhol’s iconic Soup Can artwork and Keith Haring’s cartoon graffiti art.
This was a fun find as we have three of these chairs. The chair was made by Jaymar in Quebec in the 1980s which is when we bought ours. Surprised to see one in Palm Springs, but it is funky and functional. We love ours!
I was intrigued to find this golfer seemingly randomly place in front of the heritage library. The signage identifies Jeffrey Alden Fowler as the artist and the title “Chairman of the Links,” but it doesn’t tell you the individual is Tom O’Donnell an oilman who built Palm Springs’s first golf course in 1927. Today there are 100+ golf courses in the area.
One day while walking off-the-beaten path we came upon an empty block with dirt trail rather than a sidewalk. - a reminder that Palm Springs is a desert. What struck us both was how the almost perfect imprints of the soles of the different shoes looked like fossils.
This was one of our early flaneur finds - two pigs and a crow? There must be a fun story behind this Christmas display.
Last Word
I hope you have enjoyed these fun flaneur finds as much as I did finding them.
Here are some more fun flaneur find blogs:
24 Fun Flaneur Finds in Vancouver