So who knew I owned a chain of shoe shops in France?

No. Me neither - but here's the evidence www.chaussure-beryl.com. Looks like I have about a hundred stores
As for other things
-- the conference is over.
-- Grant should arrive here in an hour or so.
-- and I have got a local data chip in my ipad so we have a navigation system and connection to the world.
That is another story. I couldn't make head-nor-toe of the French telecom sites so I asked one of the student volunteers for some help. He located the best deal and where the store was - I just wandered in, pulled out my ipad with the right page of their site showing and pointed to what I wanted. He didn't get it quite right, but near enough for the girl and I to get it sorted 18E (about $30) and I have a chip and data for 30 days.