In January I headed to the northern Rhone to drink some syrah, visit Hervé Souhaut (see wine recommendations) and do a shoe shopping story for the NYT's travel section. A tiny piece, but one can safely say that because of the 300 word assignment, I was able to sate the obessions of syrah and shoes in one short stop. Here, on the job with me was my fearless travel buddy Melissa Clark (center right), doing her part to parallel shoe shop. Not to be left out were our local friends, shoe shopping diva-- Erin Cannon Chave (far right) and Beatrice Pimpinella (far left).

See these white and red saddles? I love them! But unfortunately the shoe museum in Romans---really worth the detour---wouldn't sell them to me.