If you're my age (meaning not in your 20s) and you've even heard of "parkour," it's probably because of that scene in the 2006 remake of "Casino Royale" when James Bond chases a bounding, bouncing bad guy up a giant construction crane, down an elevator shaft and over all kinds of obstacles on a building site.
The leaping, sprinting bandit is played by Sebastian Foucan, one of the cofounders of parkour, whose practitioners acquire the skills to negotiate any environment, at high speed if necessary, by climbing, vaulting, jumping, running and rolling. Developed in France in the early 1990s, it's best performed by young, strong people with flexible joints, not someone whose ankles are stiff until his second cup of morning coffee kicks in.
But now there's a parkour class especially for those of us who remember Sean Connery and Roger Moore, not Daniel Craig, as Agent 007. With my best crane-climbing days behind me, I wasn't sure what I'd get out of the experience, but several people had recommended it to me, so I decided to give it a try.