France: Stairs and Sensible Shoes

I survived France, all aspects of it. My knee worked (yay!--round of thunderous applause) and I didn't loathe my family at the end of the trip.

First, my knee. In the Middle Ages when many of the castles we visited were built, there was no such thing as the Americans with Disabilities Act. France has a shitload of stairs and very few places are accessible to people with mobility issues. Interestingly, there were exhibits in numerous museums for the visually impaired. One woman outside the L'Arch de Triomphe was asking for signatures on a petition to increase accessibility for french monuments. I would have signed it, but I felt uneasy giving my John Hancock to a strange woman in a foreign country on a petition where I might only be able to understand half of what was written. I feared signing something like, "I agree there should be access for the disabled at french monuments and I agree to sign over my checking account to Marie-Laure DuPont."

Back to the stairs. The Metro, our primary means of transport outside of walking, is underground. The Metro does not have escalators or elevators. There are at least two to four flights of stairs at every Metro stop. Train stations have stairs. I managed to climb up and down stairs while carrying a backpack and a suitcase. Our hotel had a tiny elevator and slow elevator that was primarily used for luggage, so I climbed up and down the steps of every hotel.* The Catacombs have stairs. Museums like the Louvre have stairs. Versailles has stairs. We climbed up the L'Arch de Triomphe via spiral staircases. Sacre Coeur has stairs. We climbed stairs in the neighborhood to get to Sacre Coeur before we climbed those stairs.

Mont St. Michel has more stairs than there are stars in the sky. We stayed over night at Mont St. Michel--which was completely awesome, by the way. I highly recommend it. The website warned that there are seventy steps to the hotel room, which is fine, except the hotel room was several flights below the abbey. They also failed to mention (or I failed to imagine) how many times I would have to climb those seventy steps. Up and down for dinner. Up and down to get the Boy because he wanted to chill in the room instead of look at more old stuff. Up and down to the abbey twice. Up and down to walk around Mont Saint Michel in low tide twice.

And I survived. I only punted on climbing up the steps to the Eiffel Tower, and that was because it was early in the trip. I feared getting to tired or hurt, and then being lame for the rest of the trip, which would have been bad. Interestingly, I think it might have been more steps up to the top of the L'Ache de Triomphe, but I went up that unquestioningly.

I would use the handrail whenever I could and would go as slow as a possibly could instead of letting gravity bound me down the steps or letting momentum carry me up. I didn't want to lose stability and fall.

I also wore sensible shoes. At my post-op appointment with Dr. Tex, he told me to wear sturdy shoes on my trip, and he nodded at my tennis shoes. Since my surgery, I have been wearing athletic shoes almost every day because they are comfortable and because I workout every day. I have a really cute and comfortable pair of Naot sandals which have cork insoles. I was hoping to wear these in France. I did for the first day, until I was slipping and tripping over the cobblestones. They didn't give me the stability I needed to navigate the century old streets and sidewalks. On went the sport shoes, and I looked like a tourist from the 1980's. Egads, but I had no choice. At least I had matching scars on my knees. I was glad I wore running shoes to Versailles. Instead of my usual twenty paces behind my family on a regular sidewalk, at Versailles I was forty paces behind. If I were wearing sandals, I'd still be there.

I wish I would have bought a nice pair of waling shoes before the trip. I did that six years ago before my daughter and I went to London for a week. I was too pre-occupied with other stuff I guess to plan that far ahead. Next time.

Jack and I, plus cobblestones at Versailles.

Proof I made it to the top of the L'Arch de Triomphe

Medieval castle at Fougeres. Notice stairs in foreground. We climbed up almost all of the towers. Why? Because they were there.

Notice rocky and dried mud walking surface around Mont St. Michel.

Crowded but exceptionally cool walkway at Mont St. Michel.

A nice view of Mont St. Michel at night.

* Except for the hotels in Vancouver, British Columbia. We flew out of Canada which was a) significantly cheaper and b) very efficient compared to understaffed TSA stations at SeaTac.