Justin Fitzpatrick, owner of the blog
The Shoe Snob and currently working at Gieves and Hawkes Ltd in London, visited the Cothay workshop in Paris a few weeks ago.
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Upon arriving to Corthay, he was almost under the impression that it was closed, as there was only a window with some shoes displayed, but no signs of a main entrance. Not far from the display window of shoes, there was another window open with some workers who were 'finishing shoes' (i.e. applying the patinas, finishing off the heels and making sure that the end result of the bespoke shoe is tip top!). Justin knew that they must work there (not hard to figure out), and so he asked his friend who accompanied him to inquire.
They said that they were open, let them in (through these big doors that led to a courtyard-like entrance) in which the shop was on the right and the rest of space belonging to various sectors of the company, all of which were part of Corthay. One of the workers escorted them to the shoe shop part of it and allowed them to look around. Justin asked if it was okay to take pictures, as he is a shoe blogger, who of course, they had not heard of! Surprising though, as he puts so many of their shoes on his blog, and has quite a following in France...
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As you can see the atelier was still decorated in the "Excellence Run" style:
