Shoe holidays I remember

We have had a few memorable holidays involving shoes or lack thereof. The first one that I remember was when we lived in France and the kids were young and we went to the Atlantic coast of France, near Bordeaux,  with Aussie friends and their kids.
We wanted to have a picnic near a big sand dune called Dune de Pyla but when we arrived we realized we would have to fight for the tables. Hubby spotted one and ran for it, forgetting that he was wearing the preferred shoes of all Aussies on holiday, flipflops. He instantly stubbed his big toe so badly that I had to take him to hospital (and yes, we lost the table). There in hospital he was instantly whisked away and I had to sit in an un-airconditioned room for ages. Hours later he was wheeled out reeking of alcohol. It turned out that every time a nurse would pass by while he was waiting, she would see his white suffering face and give him some very strong green, medicinal Chartreuse on a sugar cube. Without wanting to belittle his suffering here I think he realized he was on to a good thing and by just moaning a little in pain every time a nurse went by,  he would get another one (and another one)
Anyway, his toe was fixed up but he was told  not to go on the sandy beach or in the water. By the way, did I mention that this was the first day of a two week  beach holiday? So hubby had to spend two weeks sitting on a bench up on the promenade watching us frolicking on the beach.

The other memorable shoe holiday was a week spent in the south of France with 2 families from Grenoble. They had planned to go to Bandol and invited us as well but I couldn't quite make up my mind since hubby was in the States and was coming back the day they were thinking of leaving. Anyway, hubby came back and said "sure, yes let's go" and we went. We just packed a few things in a hurry since it was a beach holiday. Well, the next day going to the beach it turned out that since hubby had left more or less in what he was wearing from the plane he hadn't thought to pack any other shoes. That is a big problem when you have size 13 US or 47 European. They don't have shoes that size, ....anywhere. His great-auntie Isabel, who is not with us any more,  used to say "You would be a lot taller if you didn't have so much turned under.".
Anyway so as not to waste too much time walking around shops looking for suitable beach shoes, hubby decided to brave it out. So he wore his black business shoes to the beach, with shorts and bathers because he is not one of these cool dudes that can walk barefoot everywhere. No his feet are too tender for that, so he had to put up with the general ridicule.

This brings me to our latest excursion to Uluru which I mentioned before. Hubby walked around the rock, 10.6 km in all, and by the end he looked like this. He had walked the last kilometers without soles on his shoes, just hobbling along as best as he could, poor dear, in 38 degrees heat.

There have been other holidays involving shoes but I don't want to bore you. Instead stay tuned for the next  installment about Uluru.