This article offers an analysis of Mauritian author Barlen Pyamootoo’s second novel, Le Tour de Babylone, which examines how a dual narrative voice projects two distinct visions of the city of Bagdad. On the one hand, Bagdad is completely transformed into a tourist attraction, specifically reimagined to entice the Western visitor. On the other hand, the protagonist is able to resist this touristic perspective and explores the city with a sensi bility similar to that of Baudelaire’s flâneur. In the end, it is the strength of the transnational flâneur’s imagination that allows both Pyamootoo and his hero to superimpose their African homeland onto Iraq.