We're going on a slipper hunt

When you’re packing for a trip like this there are inevitably some things you decide to leave behind. Coming to a place like France, you assume that the shops are full of similar stuff to the UK. Like slippers, for example.

I would struggle to survive without a pair of slippers to wear around the house. When we were packing, I had a new pair and a nearly-new pair to choose from, but as we were bringing only what we could carry, neither of them got packed.

I wasn’t too bothered about what sort of slippers I found in France, although I would prefer some sort of moccasins or something with a little bit of simple style – I do love the Simpsons, but I would draw the line at pair of Homer slippers.

After ten days of keeping an eye out for slippers, I went on a very thorough slipper hunt today. I’m not sure if French people understand the concept of slippers in the same way as we do in the UK. There were leather sandals at €50, flip-flops and Crocs™. Galleries Lafayette had a pair on sale that were a long way the wrong side of my Homer Simpson line-in-the-sand.

We tried a Chinese supermarket where the owner understood what we were getting at, but his small supply of canvass shoes were only in women’s sizes. So we arrived home without slippers.

I now have a number of options. One is to ship in slippers from the UK. The other is to utilise options that exist in France like Kung Fu slippers or espadrilles. I haven’t seen any martial arts shops in Caen and this could be another fruitless search. However, I did see some espadrilles somewhere in the past ten days. The only problem is that I can’t remember where.