Parisian Shoes

Herr J alluded to another one of my surgical shopping strikes. I think I surprised even him with the swiftness and efficiency, but really I just wanted the exact same pair of black ballet flats I've had for 3 years. Minus the 3 years of wear and tear.

So our walking tour of Paris included a quick stop in the Repetto flagship store near the Opera.

It may not be the most well-known attraction or the most glamorous of Parisian shoes (we would have spent HOURS had we visited Christian Louboutin!).  However, it's worth a visit for two reasons:

• to buy the most comfy ballet flats in the world
• if you ever loved ballet

New Bolchoi Flats :)For me, it's more the former.  Trying to walk for hours in heels, especially on European cobblestone walks, is painful and it hurts my poor beautiful shoes.  City life has driven me to need flats. And every pair I've tried just give horrible blisters and tear up my heels. It doesn't matter if they're cheap or really well made; they're just all too rigid, and often have flimsy soles. Sadly I've probably wasted a lot of money on inexpensive "comfortable" shoes that in the end are unwearable.  Thankfully a good friend in Singapore introduced me to Repetto, and I'm hooked on the Bolchoi flats with their super-soft leather and square toes.  Light like ballet shoes (feels like wearing nothing on your feet) but with soles that can deal with walking outside.

For those who have a love of ballet, it's a wonderful little store full of history and tutus and pointe shoes and other beautiful ballet attire.  The reason the shoes are so wonderfully comfortable is in their history.  I know nothing about ballet shoes, but these are supposed to be among the best. Founder Rose Repetto was the mother of famous French choreographer Roland Petit.  After she made shoes for Roland’s use, she eventually opened the store in 1947 at this location near the Opera.  They initially made only real ballet shoes, but the legend is that Brigitte Bardot commissioned the boutique to make her a pair of red ballet flats to wear in And God Made Woman, kicking off the chic Parisian trend. 

Though they remain a premier shoe supplier to ballet companies, Repetto now is part of Reebok.  After major troubles after Rose's death, Reebok purchased the failing business in 1999 and has turned it around (through a bankruptcy and reorganization) into a trendy fashion brand.  Today they’ve expanded beyond flats into other dance-inspired shoes (heels that look like they could tango all night) and even boots and loafers. I doubt I would buy Repetto boots, but I’m curious if the heels are as comfortable as their flats given their dance background. I would LOVE to find heels I could walk in on European streets for hours!

If you're interested, you can watch a video here of the shoes being made.

Repetto
22 Rue de la Paix
Paris
Metro Stop: L'Opera
Open Mon-Sat 9:30-19:30

I'll still keep wearing the old pair until they completely fall apart (especially for long walks), but now can wear flats to work functions without feeling ashamed of my really beat up dingy shoes.

In the interest of full disclosure, I recieve nothing for writing a post about fabulous shoes. Other than that joy that new shoes always bring. Of course, if Repetto (or other Parisian shoemakers... Yes, M. Louboutin, I'm talking to you!) wanted to send me free shoes in exchange for press on our tiny little blog, I could be bought.  Easily!

Photoblog - Paris!

As Frau A teased in a recent post, we flew to Paris for a weekend to meet a friend of mine from Fairport High School.  (Graduated over 20 years ago!)  This friend is a professor and is teaching a course over the next month in Paris, so it was a great opportunity to catch up with her and see the city again.

It was definitely a walking weekend.  On Saturday we started at the Arc de Triomphe, and criss-crossed our way across the city to Notre Dame.  With a stop for Frau A to shop for shoes, of course.  On Sunday, we wanted to see the Catacombs (closed!) so spent the morning inside the Louvre, walked past Luxemburg Garden to the hotel, then in the evening walked along Sorbonne and border of the Latin Quarter to a nice restaurant.  Click on the map below for a slightly more readable version:

 

Have to start with a classic - Le Tour.  Unfortunately, we were on the city's west side Saturday morning, so looking east to the Eiffel Tower (and into the sun).  Photos turned out OK anyway.  Isn't it funny that they had planned initially to take it down after the 1889 World's Fair?

Did *not* choose to wait in line to go up the Tower.  If you really want to do this, be there an hour before it opens.  Even around 10am, the line was a huge snake of probably 300 people.  Even the line to use the stairs was at least 100 people!  You can wait 2 hours, and we wanted to move.

Another icon - the Louvre.  Had to wait a little bit to have few people in the frame, and finally got some reflections in the water.  What is especially nice is all the green/garden areas you walk through to get to this neat architecture (see the map again).  NOTE:  all these photos are out-of-camera JPEG... the HDR versions are coming in a future post!

Final super-tourist shot - Notre Dame.  Again, it's a view seen a million times that just doesn't get boring.  The Seine with boat in the foreground, large stone towers behind... could have spent hours here clicking away with the camera.

Fortunately, we did pass by again on Sunday evening.  Love the "street art" in front (well, maybe this is just graffiti).  Actually, there are free Paris street art walking tours available.  Could be interesting next time.

One of the things I love about the Micro-Four-Thirds cameras is that the lenses are relatively small compared to "standard" (APS-C) DSLR cameras.  I changed to the Panasonic 100mm-300mm lens (equivalent to 200mm-600mm in full-frame terms!) and got some detail of the gargoyles on Notre Dame.  Randon fact:  gargoyles initially functioned to convey water from the roof away from the side of a building, which reduced erosion of the masonry.

On the brief detour for Frau A to get a pair of her favorite ballerina flats (I'll let her share the details in another post) we passed the Paris Opera. I used the same zoom lens here.  Rather than be physically near the building and zoom out closely (which would result in a strange, sharp "looking-up" angle), I stayed further back and used the lens' reach to get a better framed shot.  These two statues are actually quite far apart (see the wide picture at the Opera link above). 

In addition to the familiar sights, Paris seemed to present some unusual things as well.  We see a lot of street performers in Munich (painted silver or blue), but this person below the Arc de Triomphe is the first King Tut I've ever come across.  Pretty credible too.

There are always crowds in front of Notre Dame, but this lady stood out.  She was feeding the pigeons and seemed to share a close, personal relationship with one.  Great smile - obviously happy with her friend.

It was a brief, running-around, interesting, and funny weekend.  Good food too - that's yet another post.  I suppose that's Paris.  It was great to see an old friend, experience the city again, and take more photos.  Ironically, we didn't capture a lot of pictures of "The City of Light" in the evening.  Next time...

Paris

We met up with one of Herr J's friends in Paris for the weekend. A very short trip, but lots of fun to report...great food, the Louvre, new shoes, loads of walking, and even bigger loads of photos. ("I'm going to bracket that and tonemap the heck out of it!" was something I heard often.

I'm off for a business trip for a few days, and haven't had a chance to sort through all the pictures.

Until then, here are a couple of lovely skies. We were lucky to have some very dramatic clouds, changing constantly through the days. (And happy that the rain held off until Sunday night)