In which we search for shorts and Sapphire makes a friend

There are two important things to know about sales in France. The first is that during the months of January and July, all of the stores have sales. The second is that during every other time of year there are no sales.

A few days ago, Sapphire, who is beginning to grow in that uneven preteen manner, decided that all of her scooters were too short, and that people might think that the attached shorts were underpants. This was a deterrent to playing on the playground and many other activities, so this afternoon we set off in search of shorts for her. Our local hypermarche has a good sized shopping mall attached to it, and also has some clothing of its own, so we headed over there. After pouring over the clothing selection at the Auchan (hypermarche) and both of the kids' clothing store, we came to the conclusion that the number of pairs of shorts in something approximating Sapphire's size was exactly zero, even after including boys' shorts in the mix. There were a reasonable number of things that would have fit Cherry, but nothing for a 9 or 10 year old. Ultimately I assured her that I had seen lots of girls in skirts at the playgrounds, and that they didn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that people could see their underwear when they hung upside down. Of course this makes perfect sense. Any shorts that they did have would have been marked down to 50% off back at the beginning of the month. Had we gone shopping 3 weeks ago, there would likely have been plenty of shorts.

Since we didn't have any luck with shorts, we swung into a grown up clothing store, and I picked up a couple of T-shirts to replace ones that were beginning to get holes. I am now the proud owner of 2 French shirts, for the grand total 7 Euros.

There is a small playground near our apartment; less than 100 meters from the front of our building. It's not part of our complex but rather is owned and operated by the city. In fact, there are at least 4-5 more playgrounds of this size within a half kilometer or so of our apartment. This particular playground is especially nice because it is close enough so that Sapphire and Ezio can safely go there on their own. Cherry, however, needs to be accompanied. This afternoon, after I had slipped the bread pudding into the oven, the four of us walked over to the playground, accompanied by a timer so that I would know when to get the pudding out of the oven. Sapphire has been somewhat lonely much of the time since we've been here. She wants to play with people, but her French skills are just not that strong yet. Today she finally hit it off with another little girl; probably a year or so older than she is. When I went up to take out the pudding and start supper, she stayed behind and played for another hour and a half.