Back home, after an exhausting and rewarding twelve days in Europe, mostly in Paris. Lee and I did, as usual, lots of sightseeing, which was particularly rewarding for me, since the French choice of footwear is truly a sight worth seeing, infinitely better than what you see in New York these days. Hightop Converse All Stars are all the rage, unfortunately for women as much as for men, but I've learned to avert my eyes quickly from the women and focus on the men, who are often hot as hell.
For the most part the French are wearing good crew socks too, rather than those disgusting cutoff socks, or "footies" or noseeums or peds or whatever you want to call them that are so popular over here. I like men's feet as much as the next guy (well, considerably more than the next guy, if it comes to that) but I've never found anything particularly interesting or exciting about the naked male ankle seen above a shoe or sneaker, expecially when you consider how sexy it is to see those real nice ankles hugged by socks, white sweatsox, preferably. It's true that dark socks are as popular as white ones in France, but you can't have everything, I suppose.
So much for our sightseeing. We did spend a morning at the Louvre (where the boys' footwear was splendid) and one of these days I promise I'll take Lee to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Last Friday we went to Amsterdam for the day, taking the 6.30 train there in the morning and the 6.30 train back in the late afternoon. Each trip took almost five hours—the trip ordinarily takes just a little more than four, but because there'd been a big strike in France the day before, things were a little off schedule. It's the only time in my life I've been on European trains that got in late. On arrival in Amsterdam we went directly to the offices of Mister B, who've been B&G's European distributors for many years, and whose owner and manager, Wim and Wouter, have become our great friends. Over the next four hours, we discussed the return of Bound & Gagged, which made Wim and Wouter very happy, and various other business possibilities for us, as a result of which we got to know the Mister B accountant and tax advisor, too. We paused for a lunch break—Wouter ordered sandwiches from a Surinam sandwich shop down the road—which led Lee and me to agree that if we don't manage to relaunch the company, we're going to open a Surinam sandwich shop in New York. Those curried sandwiches were, without a doubt, the best sandwiches we've ever eaten.
Our friend Philippe, whom I didn't get a chance to tie up this time, gave a beautiful concert in a church late Sunday afternoon, which Lee and I attended, after which we went to dinner with two leather friends, known respectively on Recon as MasterKuir and KuirSourire. I'd been in email correspondence with MasterKuir for many years, but we'd never met, and the four of us hit it off beautifully and had a great dinner together.
More tomorrow.
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