They were like stepping on clouds. I excitedly saved them for my trip. On the first day of our trip, we visited the town of Beynac, France, which is basically a 45-degree angle made out of very old cobblestones. Then it drizzled and the town became a 45-degree angle made out of very old, SLIPPERY cobblestones. I did baby steps the whole way down while holding onto buildings for support and Andy occasionally backtracked to make sure I wasn't dead. I pulled these out of my suitcase again in Paris. Only one day of walking through the city of lights and I had blisters on the bottom of my toes and burning soles. These just aren't made for cobblestones.
I picked up these OTBT Springfield shoes a few months ago because I had a Groupon to burn.
The soles are kind of like Birkenstocks, so I thought they'd be great for traversing cobblestone streets. For the first few hours that I wore them in Paris, they were a DREAM. I commented aloud that I couldn't believe that my feet didn't hurt after that morning's hike. A few hours later, I could barely walk. In fact, I "held it" for an hour at the Musee d'Orsay because the bathroom was downstairs and I couldn't face walking down and back up again. We ended up taking our only cab of the week that night because the thought of walking across town to our hotel was too much. The hard soles bruised my arches pretty badly. I wore these on Tuesday and my feet were still tender when I get a pedicure on Saturday night.
Thankfully, I impulsively tossed my dusty old PUMAS into my suitcase a few minutes before I zipped it up.
I ended up wearing these for 7 of our 10 days of travel. I was a little embarrassed by their condition and the fact that they didn't match any of my outfits, but I am pretty sure that my giant camera bag and the camera hanging around my neck already gave me away as a big, unstylish American! The shoes just sealed the deal. Incidentally, PUMAS also aren't made for walking on cobblestones. Your foot basically just bends around them like a bird.
No comments:
Post a Comment