Shopping experience

Shopping here is quite different from what you might face in the US. Today, I took the kids to a beautiful new playroom in a large shopping center. They were excited to go play. I was excited to see a friend I haven't seen in years and to meet her 3 year old son for the first time. She gave me directions and it all seemed rather simple. In the morning, however, it started raining and I hoped that the rain wouldn't make it harder to find the place. We found it OK but couldn't find parking. Every time I visit one of many brand new shopping centers, I get newly amazed at the poor exterior planning. Interiors are beautiful and mostly well executed. But getting to the shops and dealing with parking is the hardest thing.

The shops are varied, plentiful and well stocked unlike how it was when I was growing up. In the past couple of years, especially, selection of quality goods and services has significantly expanded. Chris and I will soon be buying kitchen appliances and such and I'll tell you, the selection here far surpasses what I've seen in the US. Selections for appliances, tile, kitchens... It is beautifully designed. Like walking onto a Home and Garden TV show. Welcome to the shopping paradise to all of you who have cash. I'll talk more about that some other time.

We couldn't find parking. The parking was poorly designed in a comb shape. That means that cars had to back out if they mistakenly thought there was an open parking spot and there were none. There was no other way to turn around. The access roads were poor. It was hard to get there and hard to get out. The cars lined up behind each other in a hurry, signage was poor. I managed to get around the building and proceeded towards the residential area and parked there. It took us about 30 minutes to accomplish this. Parking so far also means that, had we bought groceries or large items, it would have been quite a trick to get them to the car.

The playroom was great though. Believe it or not, we've been to a couple of playrooms here that don't even come close to anything they have in Birmingham. These places are several times the size of Pump It Up (for those of you that know what I am talking about), are indoors and have terrific equipment. It's kid heaven by all means. Exterior playgrounds though aren't nearly as nice as vandalism quickly deteriorates new playgrounds. Design of outdoor playgrounds also leaves a lot to wish for regarding kid safety. It's like a polar opposite to the indoor ones.

We had a great time and once kids looked like they're about to fall over (takes about two hours of continuous running to accomplish that), we were ready to leave. I took them to McDonald's on the way back and they loved it. Good little Americans. They ate up all of their french fries (or American potatoes as it says at Paris airport fast food places) and sat around the house exhausted for the rest of the afternoon. It makes bed time a lot easier this way.

Forgot to mention another interesting shopping tidbit... If you go grocery shopping here, you have to either bring your own bags or you pay for the ones you take. How about that! They don't give you 10 bags for 10 items like they do at WalMart. Here you think twice about how many bags you get because you're paying for them. It's a nice way of reducing waste. This is the case for grocery stores only. Other stores give bags. Probably because the amount purchased is usually considerably smaller than when it comes to groceries.