spouse's ancient pair of hiking shoes having fallen apart during an evening stroll, we scurried to the nearest shoemaker ("cordonnier"). Bernard doesn't speak English, but one of us is francophone, and he's so friendly that I don't think it would make a difference anyway. The short story is that though he's obviously busy, he got the job done (well done) by first thing the next morning. The bill came to 16 euros for re-glueing soles on both shoes, plus new laces. read more