Observations: Cafe shoe anthropology

What many expats learn during long stays in Europe is that shoes are the number one indicator of new arrivals or tourists. One can sit in a lovely Pairs sidewalk cafe for hours watching feet go by and gain a confident sense of which are the Parisians, which are the Germans on vacation, which are the Brits, the Itamians, etc. The diversity of footwear is at once immense and singluar.  It's one of the pleasures of an extended stay in a new place. Each culture has a style of its own which only be learned by experience, quiet, observation and fierce shopping. At first, subtleties are lost on new students of footwear, but gradually a certain game can be played; put together all the clues and be surprised by the cohesive nature of cultures or, if you are wrong, be reminded that no one can really be labeled.