These shoes were not made for walking.

They were made for standing in one place during choir concerts. But whatever, I've worn them all over Tours now. This morning I didn't wake up until 10am, and Valeria and I went down after a bit for a late breakfast of chocolate cereal.

Madame Dhommée used to have a cook and housekeeper to take care of the house, but since Xavier and Jacqueline are living with us, we're just supposed to take care of dishes and stuff like that ourselves. So after washing dishes we hung out for a bit, and then Valeria, Joel, and I went out to see if we could find a supermarché (supermarket) to buy shampoo and soap and other such necessities. Xavier told us to go by the train station, so we set off!

It's a bit colder here than I had expected, although not nearly so cold as Moorhead. We wore gloves and coats and scarves, but the train station is only a 10 to 20 minute walk away. Once there, however, we couldn't find the supermarché at all. We saw the little briocherie that Xavier had told us to look for, and a whole street of little shops and stuff. But no sign of a basic store.

We looked at the map, and found a marché marked a little ways from the train station, so we headed there. It looked like the market wasn't being held that day, though, and we pretty much figured out that the marché is an open-air market where you buy food and art and handmade stuff, and the supermarché is where you buy toiletries. There was a fairly large street that went from the open marché back to Rue Mirabeau and Le Nonante, so we followed that back up.

After a bit of a pause to warm up our frozen extremities, we asked again, and Xavier repeated that the supermarché was right next to the train station. Once more, we set out. This time, we found what we think he was referring to, but the store was closed and the grates were down over the doors. It was right next to the briocherie, so we got brioche. If you've never had it, it's fabulous. Shaped kind of like a muffin, but more like pastry, the brioche basically made my day.

We wandered down the little shopping district again, and found a 2 Euro store (roughly equivalent to a dollar store) where we could buy some things. I had to ask at a pharmacie to find an ATM, since the store didn't accept bank cards. Then we headed back to Le Nonante to hang out some more. I get the feeling these days before class starts are going to be really relaxed, which I'm definitely cool with.