Photo courtesy G Dempster
French shoes
A wise woman advised me before I left for Europe that I should just take an empty suitcase, and so many times her words came back to me! I didn't think I'd be doing a lot of shopping in France and Italy. I'd heard it was expensive, and the exchange rate was dear. I couldn't have been more wrong! There was reasonable shopping in abundance, and the Euro was approx. 1.30 CAD. (Have I done the exchange rate correctly... I always get it backwards!)
European stores seemed to be far more reasonably priced there; Zara, Mango, Benetton. Found some new favorite stores too, Promod and Naf Naf (clothing) and Andre (shoes). Birkenstock's could be found on every corner... they have spiffed up their styles and sell between 40 and 55 Euros. See... totally reasonable!
Nice is a shoppers paradise for any budget. The main shopping district straddles the tram line. You can happily while away an overcast afternoon shopping for shoes and clothes, which of course we did!
I also fell in love with French homewares. The top floor of Galeries Lafayette is loaded with fabulous, modern, European brands. Maison du Monde offers an eclectic mix of home furnishings not unlike Pier 1.
Unbeknownst to us, we lucked out flying into France and out of Italy. Reason being France has a 50 lb luggage allowance, whereas Italy has a 60 lb luggage allowance. As our bags got heavier and heavier with our purchases, we feared we'd be in trouble checking into the airport in Rome. A little online detective work revealed that we'd be in the clear. But next time, I will be taking an empty suitcase and a full wallet for fun new clothes, fabulous shoes, and the fabulous leather goods from Florence... more on that in Italian leg of our tour ... coming soon...
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