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I’ve been transfixed by videos featuring le parkour, the French sport of freestyle urban climbing, also known as “free running.” Most people got their introduction to le parkour in the opening scene of the film Casino Royale, but that was a slick action film, and most parkour videos have a decidedly homemade quality.

Le parkour was founded fifteen or sixteen years ago by the Frenchman David Belle, inspired partly by Spider-Man comics. Though he’s achieved a modest amount of fame and appeared in a commercial or two and the odd action film (always playing a young man who does le parkour), he still lives with his mother and devotes himself to le sport. He turned down the chance to double Peter Parker in Spider-Man III, because he’d have to wear a mask and not be French. The videos show that he’s simply the best. (In fact, aficianados of the sport call themselves “traceurs,” meaning something like “followers,” in that they’re following David Belle.)

And he’s not an invincible James Bond. Occasionally he falls down.

(And by the way, who sez that the French are wimps?)

Le parkour is pure sport. It’s Zen. There are ethics, but no rules. There is a culture and an elaborate vocabulary, but no governing body. There is in intense physical training, repetition, spontaneity, and incredible danger, but no safety equipment.

Adding any of these elements would make the sport a lot less interesting.

Le parkour can be used to enhance your daily life. It can spice up your video games, enhance a simple game of tag, or aid you in escaping members of an Eastern cult .

If I were only forty again, I’d be so all over this.