France Travel: Shopping Atelier Style

Our little town is blessed with quite a few 'makers' in the new vernacular. A cobbler, an armorer/blacksmith, leatherworker, jeweller, and umbrella maker! Over the past few weeks we've wandered in and out of most of these shops and today was the day to buy! I am now the very happy owner of a fabulous umbrella with a wooden handle (although sadly, not a metal ferule, he doesn't make them he says, but I couldn't understand why, something to do with the super market):

It even started to rain after lunch so I had a chance to try out how it does in the rain and wind.

We then hit the leather worker. She has some beautiful things including tooled purses, belts, hair clips, horse tack and other fun things. We got the dog an absolutely fabulous tooled leather collar, and me a large leather hair clip.

After a light lunch and cooling beer at our favourite little spot we wandered down the hill to the shoe shop. Isabaut makes wooden soled leather shoes. I always struggle to find shoes that fit because I have wide feet and a high arch. They are very comfortable feet, but they don't like shoes much! After I tried a couple pairs Isabout said she'd have to make them special for me, recognizing my difficulties and desire to own a pair. Chris and I had some discussion about the proper design of the uppers and soles (as you might imagine, once Pandora opened the box, the options were endless). Next week I pick up my custom made pair of silver leather and wood shoes. Perfect for London I hope.