In which we go to the pool

Unfortunately, while Sapphire and Ezio had the proper gear for swimming in a French pool since they have been swimming once a week for school since November (tight fitting suit (speedo style for boys) and swim cap), Cherry and I did not. Our first stop, therefore, was the Decathlon. We walked out of the station at Bibliothèque François Mitterand and into big flakes of swirling snow, which Sapphire insisted was a blizzard. Then across the street and up to the swimming stuff. Cherry needed a suit because she had outgrown hers; I needed a suit because my skirted suit didn't meet the rather stringent pool regulations, we both needed caps, and Cherry wanted goggles. Thirty minutes and €30 later, Cherry had a pink swim suit, swim cap, and goggles, and I had a purple suit and pink cap.

Back to the train, and then through the Auchan to do our grocery shopping. (The security people sealed up our Decathlon bag so that we couldn't use it for shoplifting, not that we would have done that anyway.) The swimming pool didn't open until 3:30, so we spent a couple of hours around the house, planning to head over to the pool when it opened.

A bit before we were ready to head over though, Blanche asked whether Sapphire could play. I told Sapphire that was fine, but she would only be able to play for half an hour if she wanted to go to the pool. When Blanche's dad asked Sapphire why she could only play for 30 minutes, she told him that we were going swimming. Blanche's little sister overheard, and went to tell Blanche, who of course wanted to go too. Her dad gave permission, but didn't have money, so Blanche decided that she would just go and watch us through the window. Then, we ran into her sister at the mall, who gave her the admission fee, and so we waited while Blanche ran home for her swimming stuff.

When I had gone to get our Cartes Fontenaysien on Tuesday afternoon, the woman who was working at the cash desk had kept our photos and told me that I could pick up the cards the next day. They still weren't ready, so she finished them quickly (pieces of paper that say "Carte Fontenaysien" and have our identifying info on them with stapled on photos) and charged us the discounted rates. Better yet, I discovered that under 4's are free for the swimming pool, though that doesn't seem to be widely advertised.

We headed for the locker rooms, where the locker attendant told me that Ezio was too small to go in the men's side by himself, a refreshing change from the US, where they would have forced him to go to the men's side. We all got our separate changing rooms, even Cherry, who was wearing her suit and cap and goggles already. Our bins of clothing went back to the locker attendant, and we showered and walked through the feet washing puddle (which Cherry thought was the swimming pool and flopped down in) and out to the pool.

There are two pools in the complex. The first is a standard lap pool, though quite a deep one, since it goes from about 5.5 feet to almost 12 feet. The second is called the "petite bassin" and goes from 2.5 feet to 4.5 feet. It's about half the size of the big pool, and is where kids may play. (Older kids can play in the big pool, but under 10's need parental supervision over there, and I wasn't interested in bringing Cherry and Ezio into water that was basically over my head.)

We spent about a hour and a half in the water, and Cherry, who hadn't been swimming since we were camping in Italy, went from very clingy to jumping of the side. She also swallowed so much water that I was amazed that she didn't throw up from the sheer volume of her stomach contents. Sapphire and Ezio played like fish. And Blanche expressed amazement that they (even Ezio!) were able to swim with their faces in the water. (I had thought that maybe they were the best swimmers in their school class because all the kids are immigrants. Perhaps not.)

Afterwards we rinsed off in the showers, and then waited for the locker attendants to come and bring us our baskets. (They're actually these big hanger contraptions: there's a basket for shoes and little stuff at the bottom, which is attached by long poles to an outsized hanger at the top. Grown up (and big kid) clothes go on very nicely. Cherry's stuff pretty much all has to be draped over the pants bar.) While we were waiting, Cherry decided to jump up and down. Probably you can envision what happens when a wet preschooler starts jumping on a wet tile floor. We staunched the flow of blood with a towel, but she had a fat lip for a couple of days.

Once we were dressed, we headed back out to the front, where we handed back our baskets, and then put on our shoes (not allowed on in the locker rooms). Then home, dinner and bed. Evidently we succeeded in wearing Cherry out, since she slept until 6:30 the next morning, which is quite late for her.