Gym Slippers

Never seen these before. Am I the only one? They are called chaussons de gymnastique and they are what the Bambina's teacher has instructed me to supply for the Bambina's gym class. They kind of remind me of Robeez, which the Bambina, like all good Canadian babies, wore when she was in the early stages of walking, and for a good while thereafter, until she wiped out in them one day and cut her lip and I decided to hell with the baby books insisting barefoot or slippers were best, and went out and got her some real shoes. (It was also getting to be cold and rainy outside and I didn't think it reasonable to expect the Bambina to walk on freezing wet Paris pavement in leather slippers, notwithstanding encouragement from other Canadian mothers to hold out as long as possible on getting real shoes for the baby).

Unlike the Robeez, the chaussons de gymnastique have grips on the bottom. I think I'm going to write Robeez and tell them to take a look at the chaussons de gymnastique and make some changes to the Robeez slipper based on them. Come to think of it, why don't French babies wear chaussons de gymnastique instead of those hard clunker shoes that their parents force them into at ten months to "support their feet" and "help them learn to walk"? Their parents wouldn't even have to buy imported Robeez shoes!