Les Soldes

Pretty sure this coat costs somewhere around 300 euros. The scarf was 49.50 Euros.

This lovely leather number is nothing less than 400euros.

We were in a cheap little jewelry store when Lauren found this treasure. Seagulls are pretty common around here, so this is a classic pair of Dunkerque pride lenses....ok, that's not at all true. They may even be as wierd here as in the states, but it's so hard to judge what is wierd because so many people just wear whatever pleases themselves.

The market vendors circulate from neighborhood to neighborhood. One day they'll be in Rosendael, another in Petite Synthe, etc. It's pretty fun to see all the different produce and items being sold. There was an entire van filled with gourmet cheeses and another selling all sorts of meat, including horse. I've heard it's pretty good, but I'm not quite morally ready for that.

Every once in a while when I get lucky, I do something that I know with a 100% confidence will make my mother proud. There was the time that I told the referee that the basketball bounced off me instead of our opponent during a rival match. When I graduated with honors from Emmett, I knew she was proud. Once, I helped an elderly man who limped walk to church because nobody wanted to stay behind. However, those pale in comparison to the joy that I know she'd emanate if only she knew that I voluntarily spent 5.5 hours shopping this last Wednesday!

Not too worry, France hasn't really gone to my head that badly; however, it was an opportunity that even I couldn't pass up. For those non-Frenchies reading this, every year in July, France has a governmentally instituted period of major sales and discounts. It lasts for about a month and every week the prices get better and better as the merchandise practically flies off the racks and shoppers flood the streets.

However, even with the discounts, most of the clothing was still very much out of our price range. We ended up in two very classy stores for des femmes d'un certain age (middle aged to elderly women); and let me tell you, elderly women in France have some serious style and cash! I didn't even realize it was for older women until we realized that every other shopper inside the store was over 50...probably not very surprising for mom who knows that Eddie Bauer and Banana Republic are more de mon genre.

We did end up getting a few things after much searching. I found a bottle of Marc Jacobs perfume and Lauren got a Valentino perfume. Since we bought them together, it was 40%  for both of us. It ended up being pretty decent.

Famished after all the hard work of shopping, we went to a little sandwicherie. I decided to be adventurous and try a grilled cheese salmon sandwich which ended up being pretty tasty (the cheese was on the top outside slice of bread and there was a creamy alfredo sauce on the inside with the salmon). We went into a few more stores and found some very typical, dorky French sweatpants. In a coup de coeur, we decided to buy matching sweatpants. Yes, we really are that dorky. After a month of always doing the same activities, we've gotten into that missionaryesque groove of accidentally wearing matchy outfits, saying the same thing at the same time, and reading the other's thoughts. So, we added dorky French pants to the list of wierdness!
Finally, we called it a day and decided to come back later since Lauren had to special order some shoes( she wore her old ones down to Missionary nothingness and because apparently a size 10 foot is freakishly large in France).

Basically every clothing store has models wearing percentage sign shirts to indicate the "amazing prices!" After all of the discounts, it works out to cost approximately 10-25% less than clothes in America...pas éblouissant, mais une
réduction quand même.