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we have boots!
Apr. 26th, 2008 05:04 pmThough there was a point in early afternoon when that eventuality seemed mighty unlikely. We got out to Rue Meslay early enough to be able to spend a lot of time there but not so early that most things weren't open. The street is long and has so many shoe stores, I was amazed. I've never seen so many stores devoted to just men's shoes in my entire life. I didn't know it would be financially viable. :) But in all those rows and rows and boxes and boxes of shoes, you'd think I'd be able to find something meeting my requirements: not too big a heal but not to small, no stilletos, not too pointy-toed, but not too rounded, matte, not shiny or suede, no patterns/stitchings/fancy bits, black, straight across the top, size 37 or 38. I was willing to accept buckles or laces, either functional or non, so long as they were fairly unobtrusive. Oh, and most importantly: They had to fit around the calf. Maybe not tightly, but nothing like the huge inch gap that most boots had. (I'm not going to stuff my pants into my boots. I think that looks stupid, and means the boots can't be worn with skirts).
I think I tried on less than 6 pairs on the entire street up and down. There were a few I saw which hit enough of the qualifications to be worth considering, but they didn't come in my size. (So why is it that none of the actual shoe stores have anything in my size and none of the wholesalers do? Do they just not make shoes in my size??)
At this point, I'm getting pretty demoralized, and wondering if I was just being too picky. But I wasn't going to spend a lot of money (my budget was 150EUR, with a cap of 200EUR) for a pair of shoes that I thought was just OK. So I was pretty convinced that I'd end up looking for a satisfactory pair of boots for the rest of my life and if I didn't capitulate on any of the characteristics, I'd never get a pair.
Joel convinced me that all we needed to do was keep looking, and he had the names of two other streets that also had shoe stores on them, somewhat more high end, and I said OK, we could at least go to the place where they joined and take a look around. We never did make it to either of them, since lo and behold when we came up out of the nearest metro station, there were shoe stores there, and in the third one, I found two pairs worth trying on. One they didn't have in my size, and the other they did but only in the bizarre size of 37 1/2. Which as it happened, turned out to fit perfectly and met pretty much all of the other qualifications. And they were only 75EUR, which shocked both of us.
So I have boots! I will try to get pictures taken of them before I leave Paris (Joel is keeping the camera with him here) and post them.
I think I tried on less than 6 pairs on the entire street up and down. There were a few I saw which hit enough of the qualifications to be worth considering, but they didn't come in my size. (So why is it that none of the actual shoe stores have anything in my size and none of the wholesalers do? Do they just not make shoes in my size??)
At this point, I'm getting pretty demoralized, and wondering if I was just being too picky. But I wasn't going to spend a lot of money (my budget was 150EUR, with a cap of 200EUR) for a pair of shoes that I thought was just OK. So I was pretty convinced that I'd end up looking for a satisfactory pair of boots for the rest of my life and if I didn't capitulate on any of the characteristics, I'd never get a pair.
Joel convinced me that all we needed to do was keep looking, and he had the names of two other streets that also had shoe stores on them, somewhat more high end, and I said OK, we could at least go to the place where they joined and take a look around. We never did make it to either of them, since lo and behold when we came up out of the nearest metro station, there were shoe stores there, and in the third one, I found two pairs worth trying on. One they didn't have in my size, and the other they did but only in the bizarre size of 37 1/2. Which as it happened, turned out to fit perfectly and met pretty much all of the other qualifications. And they were only 75EUR, which shocked both of us.
So I have boots! I will try to get pictures taken of them before I leave Paris (Joel is keeping the camera with him here) and post them.
