This morning on their way over to our vacation apartment, Gaynor said that they walked by a trash bin on top of which was a shoe box with a pair of creme colored high heels inside. Upon closer examination of the soles it was clear that these had been worn maybe once if at all. So why were they being thrown away? Did they not fit, were they a one-time-only indulgence for a wedding, was somebody moving to America and downsizing? I had another idea.

Currently on French TV there’s a commercial for a spot remover. It opens with a woman looking at a man’s white shirt where there is a bright red lipstick kiss stain on the collar. With confidence she sprays it with the product, puts it in the washing machine, and pulls out a perfectly clean shirt. She folds it neatly, places it carefully in a suitcase, closes the lid and then forcefully tosses it out the 2nd floor window from where it crashes to the ground. Could those high heels have met a similar fate?

Attached is a photo from our last night of this French vacation. We do a lot of walking on these trips and we’ll do more once we live here. Naturally it’s vital to have comfortable shoes and ones that provide good ankle support, especially when crossing cobblestones. We thought that this pair would do just that but as you can see, not so much, so why bother taking them back to the US? As luck would have it, just as the flash from the camera went off the owner of this apartment drove up so Bill had to explain what he was doing.

The other photo is a shoe shop we saw yesterday in the charming town of Mirepoix, about 45 minutes by car west of Carcassonne. Does the outside of your shoe store look like this? Mine neither…until we move here.