It was cloudy today so we decided to go shopping in Toulouse. The kids both needed some footwear as they can’t seem to stop outgrowing their existing shoes/sandles/etc. And me, I needed (ok wanted, not really needed) some new jeans and shoes. And speaking of shopping, one thing that we’ve really noticed here in France is that kids are dressed significantly better than in North America. The kids all look so cute in their adorable outfits I almost feel bad that our kids look like slobs by comparison.
And well, even I feel a little out of place in my gap jeans and nike runners. Runners and jeans are very common here but the jeans must be thin in material and the runners must look as if they have had their soles completely removed.
So in an attempt to conform I purchased a thin pair of jeans and set of runners that sort of look like sporty slippers. Hopefully the locals won’t notice that my new runners are not from a popular name brand as I purchased them at Carrefour (a Supertore-sized grocery store complete with cheap clothes) and not at the twice-as-expensive shoe store at the other end of the mall.
When it was time to shop for food at the Carrfour we had difficulty getting the job done because we couldn’t stop drooling in the cheese and meat sections. Marissa did manage to snap a few photos inside Carrfour before we were stopped by an employee and told that it was forbidden to take photos.
After getting back home I went out on a bike ride to a nearby town called Rabastens and of course it was an awesome town full of interesting old buildings. The south of France is truly a cyclist’s paradise. There are endless roads leading to an endless number of cool towns to explore with plenty of nice warm weather. And the cycling allows one to enjoy more cheese, wine, duck, etc without any associated guilt. I’m really falling in love with France!!
Tomorrow my very kind mom will take care of Emma and Liam while Marissa and I sneak off by ourselves. I think we’ll probably go to Albi and visit the Toulouse-Lautrec museum.
Good night
What a beautiful day you guys had…. Wow…. Congratulations on Emma’s obvious recovery and Francois’ new look 🙂 Wanna see pictures, he, he…
Comment by klaus — April 16, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
I second Klaus’s opinion. We want to see pictures of Francois sporting his new look 🙂 And Francois, the French will notice that your runners are not the cream of the crop but don’t worry. You are trying hard to conform.
Thanks for the nice pictures again. We were drooling in front of the monitor 🙂 Thanks for the Actif yoghurt selection. Can’t wait to gulp some of those. Have fun tomorrow “sans kids” 🙂
Comment by off2europe2 — April 16, 2007 @ 8:00 pm