In which we go shopping for gym clothes

First, I apologize if you were looking for a post yesterday and didn't see it. I've been fighting a nasty cold (yes, I'm quite sure it isn't swine flu) for the last couple of days, and I didn't get much of anything done.

Monday, Sapphire and Ezio came home from school with notes in their planners saying that they needed to bring track suits and shoes for school on Thursday. Since Sapphire had neither a track suit nor running shoes, and Ezio didn't have a track suit, our Wednesday plans were made for us.

Wednesday morning, Cherry woke up at the lovely hour of 5 a.m, and my day began. (She would later tell Blaise that I had forced her to get up in the middle of the night even though she had pleaded with me to let her stay in bed. Stinker.) We headed into Paris after lunch to the Decathlon, which is a sporting goods store. I would say it was French, but evidently they have them in the UK as well, and maybe some other places. I had heard from friends that it was a good place to find reasonably priced sports clothing and equipment, and after checking their online store had decided that prices looked reasonable.

We emerged from the metro, expecting to have to walk a few blocks to the store, and discovered the entrance staring at us just across the street. We headed up the elevator and found the children's clothing, then began the process of searching for something acceptable. Ezio found 3 track suits that he liked, but which weren't available in his size. Sapphire found 2, but they weren't available in her size. They tried them in in a larger size, but it was obvious that they would spend the whole time falling down if we went that route. Finally, I managed to find a girl's tracksuit (purple, with grey pants) in a size 10, and a boy's tracksuit (navy) in a size 6, that were deemed acceptable. They tried them on (in different dressing rooms at opposite ends of the dressing area), and both were judged an acceptable fit.

From there, it was downstairs to look at shoes. Although the men's and women's shoe aisles were clearly labeled, the children's shoes were not, and for a time I thought our options might be limited to what was available on the end caps. Eventually we found the children's shoes, and found a pair of Reeboks that Sapphire liked, were available in her size, and fit my budget since they were on clearance. (Trying them on was a bit of a trick since they were attached to each other with a very short tie.)

We checked out, grabbing a bottle of water for Cherry, who was tired, not feeling well, and jealous because she wasn't getting a track suit, and headed back to the metro.