Have you seen the Paris Shoe Tree?

Or what’s left of it?

By George Le Gresley

George Berkely is known to have said “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Or, “waiting for the shoe to drop”, a term coined in New York City when tenants in the 18 to 1900’s living in tight quarters, could hear their neighbor’s shoes fall to the floor when going to bed.

For me, the question is when the winds blew down the limbs and shoes that were on the “Shoe Tree” on Green Lane did anyone other than me care. So, you’re asking me why do I care? Well because one of the highlights on my tour of Paris is showing off to all my grandchildren, great nephews and nieces, my favorite dad pun: the Paris Shoe Tree!

Yes, the kids in the back seat asking me“Ba or Uncle George, what is a “shoe tree?” To which I reply that they’ll have to wait to see this natural wonder.

My last visit with the grandkids was a sad one, as the wind damaged the most important of many tourist attractions (Tow Mater is big with the kids as well) and many shoes that were on the trunk and on the broken branches were strewn at the base of the tree Upon discovering the mess, my 4 and 7-year-old grandchildren started peppering me with questions…. why did the tree branch break? Who and why were shoes nailed to the tree?

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The Paris Shoe Tree was once a wonderful sight, a true tourist attraction. Wear and tear over the years, combined with bad weather and no upkeep have resulted in the attraction’s demise. If you put a shoe on this tree, we want to hear your story! Email us at

Photos by George Le Gresley

The wise and all knowing “BA”, (that’s what my grandchildren call me), not my level of education attained, had no answer so I shuffled the kids back into the car so that a new topic could be opened.

Lately I started to think about the shoes and the people who nailed them to the tree. Who were the donors was and the kilometres travelled or in one case skated on ice? The ice skates where the old tube style skate, not the modern plastic molded ones with the blade imbedded into it, so they were at least 20 years old. The golf shoes may have walked the beautiful Paris Grand golf course, which was rated the 14th best golf course in Ontario not that long ago and now a high price housing development. I also have to wonder why the orange Croc sandal had “TUG” written on the left one and wondered where the right shoe dropped and what was written on it. The obvious answer would be boat, but who knows.

If you have been to Paris France, you might have walked on the Ponts des Arts or more famously the Love Lock bridge, where lovers take a lock and attach it to the mesh below the handrails. Although visited by tourists and locals, it’s now illegal to add a lock to the bridge, as the structural integrity of the bridge might be compromised like the wind to a tree limb. The Paris works department cut off “les serrures d’amour” from time to time, only to be replaced by new locks; after all the French do love tradition. Maybe our Paris works department might be interested!?

So here is what I hope for, first, that we can remediate this monument of footwear covering the trodden path these soles have taken by cleaning up the area and finding a way to display what can’t fit on the tree. Second, and more important, to see if our esteemed publisher, Chris Whelan, can report the history of this tree! Either way, if our readers have stories on this tree, please share to stories@theparisindependent com