My New Shoes work, and It's a Good Thing

Breaking News - Headline! Colossal Squid caught TODAY!

It's funny - Last time I posted, I thought I had two full blog posts of stuff to write about. One for the hospital visit, a second for the shoe hunt... But in reality, the shoe hunt was startlingly minimal. We visited Chausseland, a French shoe mega-store, and managed to find exactly four pairs of shoes in the entire store that were my size, 47-48. One pair were running shoes, and resembled nothing so much as giant tentacled amoebas trying to wrap themselves around a colorful neon sign. When did running shoes get so weird? I would have been happy with plain white "tennis shoes"; I don't really want to pay an extra 40 € to have 3" thick rubber bubbly soles and more slathered-on cladding than a mid-80's Pontiac.

Anyway, long story short, one of the pairs of shoes that fit was an excellent plain pair of brown leather walking shoes. I assume from their designation that I am not allowed to run in them, so I will try my best to be steady and non-stressful in my locomotion. It's strange to think that my feet have enlarged since moving to France. I thought it was only my waistline! But, alas, for whatever reason (I personally wonder if it isn't some sort of "foot spread" brought on by five years of life in a house and workshop with a tiled concrete floor), I no longer fit my American shoes. It's a little eerily symbolic, that - as if now it's time to drop the old American shoes completely and start contacting the ground in real French shoes........Never mind that all pairs in question were almost certainly made in China!

I also got myself a set of arch supports in the process. I'm flat-footed as your average duck, and I don't think the cement workshop has done much to improve matters, so we'll see if some artificial enhancements will help a bit. The new shoes got their first big test almost immediately this week, when we had a visit from an old friend of Emily's for several days. We decided to take the time off together, and go and see a bit of the countryside, so for the past three days I've been walking the length and breadth of Nantes, Guérande, Vannes, La Roche-Bernard, Carnac, and a little slice of the Quiberon coastline. My cheerful new French shoes took it all well, and I'm happy to report that I didn't get even a single blister, unlike the painful toe-abrasions that had started occurring every time I put my old shoes on. It was a great visit, probably the most fun one we've had so far, with nary a disaster to be had, and lots of beautiful sights and good company and great eating all around. We had the opportunity to marvel at our own total adaptation to French navigation when we purposefully flung ourselves through Nantes with no map at all (Really, it's easy! Just follow the signs!). Five years ago we were petrified, trying to spot the tiny road signs and know where to turn. Today, we ignore the road signs altogether and just relax and go towards "centre ville" or "direction: Rennes".

In closing, here are some pics from our adventures of the past three days:


Here, Emily and Emily wander the cobblestone streets of Guérande in the rain. Of course, in the rain.










Dinner at Herbignac's restaurant "La Bigouden". When we arrived, it was one of the best crèpèries around. Then, it changed owners. Luckily, it has now changed owners again, and is once more quite good. I even had an andouille crepe and it was delicious - That's how good it is. My first andouille. This coupled with French shoes is positively unsettling...

For those who don't know us, that's our friend Emily B on the left, and my wife Emily Emily on the right (in both pics).



Here they are out rock-climbing at La Roche Bernard. Absolutely beautiful day.












Hide and Seek at Carnac. These two are very silly when they get together!