Shoes. Louboutins … Manolos … as far as the eye can see. It’s a fitting backdrop, as the stars ofSex and the City 2— Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis and Kim Cattrall, plus Chris Noth and writer/director Michael Patrick King — file into the shoe department of Manhattan’s tony Bergdorf Goodman for a press conference.

The conference, held before the store opened a little more than a week before the film’s highly anticipated premiere (this Thursday if you hadn't heard), gave the group a chance to talk about a movie that, till now, at least, has been very hush hush.

Prior to this, cast and crew had been sworn to secrecy, and the production shot decoy scenes to mislead nosy papa- and blogo-razzi.

Those pics of Samantha running down the street in a wedding dress? Faaaaake.

Given the breathless, we-don’t-know-what’s-going-on-but-we’ll-talk-about-it-anyway kind of coverage this flick has gotten, you’d have thought these folks had discovered a cure for cancer … and decided to keep it to themselves.

But now, they are actually going to chat. Y’know … like regular people.

It’s been two years since the last Sex and the City film, and that’s where the sequel picks up — Carrie and John (aka Big) are two years into their marriage, Charlotte is trying to be the picture-perfect mom and Miranda faces job woes. Samantha’s issue?

“Menopause,” Cattrall says, with a rueful smile. “And I didn’t need to do any research."

“The big theme of the movie for all of us is tradition,” Parker explains. “Why do we run toward it, why do we push it away, and why when we so willingly want to commit to conventions like the institution of marriage do we find ourselves squirming?”

She pauses. Then, deadpans: “And what better place to ask these questions than in the Middle East."

Big laughs all around.

True, taking the franchise on a gal pal road trip to the Sahara is a little odd. After all, it’s called “Sex and” — hello! — “the CITY.” If you’re a fan — of either the saucy HBO series; the subsequent dubbed-clean, late-night reruns; or the first feature film, which earned $415 million worldwide — and you love all those glitzy shots of Manhattan, then don’t take a bathroom break early in this flick. Because they’re soon off to Abu Dhabi. Sort of.

The production’s Manhattan shoots were mobbed by fans and paparazzi last year. A zoomed-in photo of Cattrall, holding a script (inadvertently revealing a snippet of dialogue) was analyzed by bloggers more intently than the Kennedy assassination in that grainy, black-and-white Zapruder film.

Morocco — where they actually shot the “Abu Dhabi” scenes — was a welcome relief.

“Those first very heady days in the desert,” Nixon says, “it’s like, wow, we really are far, far away."

Morocco has hosted Hollywood before. Ben Hur was shot there. And Lawrence of Arabia.

“We actually shot on the Lawrence of Arabia dunes,” King says.

“It was one of the great experiences of my professional life,” Parker says. “To see the sun rise and set over our locations in the most far-flung places … To be on a camel with Kim Cattrall —"

“Not many people can say they’ve done that,” Cattrall pipes up.

The shoot, of course, was not without hiccups. Davis got sick.

“Apparently,” Parker says, “if you have a serious intestinal issue …”

“Yeah, we don’t need to go into the details,” Davis says.

“… it’s just warm milk."

“ Stop, stop …"

“Is that what you were prescribed?

“… stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!”

Parker’s not getting it.

“Warm milk?”

“I’m not really telling everyone about it,” Davis says, feigning embarrassment.

“Well, not you,” Parker says, playing along. “But IF you got sick, in the middle of Morocco —”

“Yeah, see …,” Davis says, faux-chastising her co-star. “I still have to talk about the first movie. On a daily basis."

She’s almost cracking up now, referring to the first film’s plot line, when her character in Mexico waged a graphic battle with Montezuma’s revenge. “So … gimme a break now, okay?”

“I didn’t say you,” Parker says, trying to clean it up. “You … had a strange cough,” she jokes.

That kind of ribbing is in keeping with the film, which is decidedly more romp than realism, tracking Carrie & Co. from camels to karaoke. The costumes are vintage Patricia Field — some wondrous, some just plain weird. Carrie wears several dresses from Halston Heritage (a line she now heads), and though there was talk of dressing these women in a manner befitting a more traditional Muslim culture, they certainly did find enough excuses to slit those skirts high up to the Promised Land.

Charlotte has a mishap with some vintage Valentino — we’ll spare you the gory deets — Miranda rocks an Out of Africa vibe and Samantha’s bod looks hot in everything.

The group shot in Morocco through Thanksgiving, so the British caterers whipped up a traditional turkey dinner, complete with pumpkin pie and marshmallows. And snake charmers, brought in when Nixon and Parker’s sons visited.

Parker’s two youngest children — twins born last year with a surrogate — stayed home, as she and husband, Matthew Broderick, decided they were too small to travel. Parker missed them, and perhaps that’s why she appreciated the familial atmosphere that can grow among a cast and crew.

“In New York, we go home to our friends and family, our children and animals,” Parker says. But Morocco changed things. She saw “what thoroughbreds they were. And how nothing could get us down, no matter how hungry we were, or how much we had to go to the bathroom, or hour 18 of day, you know, 58. And the crew —“

Parker reportedly knew them all by name.

“— we could see in their eyes that this was the day they were missing their kids but were sticking it out with us. That was kind of the tone, and it was just incredibly impressive and inspiring and, frankly, felt very buoyant."