Les listes scolaires

Our task for today is to get the stuff for Gwilym and Catrin for school from the supermarket. By going today, and using various vouchers and coupons, we'll get 10 € off (about £6) and lots and lots of loyalty points which one day we may be able to exchange for an ashtray.

Click on the first picture, Gwilym's list, then click on it again in the bottom right hand corner (it should go big), and try out your vocabulary. Last year we got baffled by buvards, which my dictionary gave as "absorbent". It was blotting paper. French people get baffled too, so the supermarkets have assistants whose job it is to help you find the critérium.

It is worth noting that Gwilym's list has been reduced and light objects chosen in place of heavier ones to reduce the weight of the kids' satchels.

Oh - and the government pays an extra large payment of child benefit this month to cover the cost of back to skool stuff.
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Comments

Alan said…
critérium:

Anyone know what one of these is? Dictionary is no help. Couldn't spot the word on the stationery shelves (or any of the moving ones for that matter), and this morning there were no helpful assistants on the prowl, just stressed parents!

It would be used by a child of 11 - 12 for maths...
6:44 pm
papyrus said…
Ah, the joys of back to school shopping. They really do bring back lots of memories, especially when you get to the end of the year and see all the things that were never or rarely used or used only in part, like the extra large exercise books when normal sized ones would have done perfectly well.

If I remember rightly a critérium is that kind of pencil that you insert leads into, then you push on the top to make it write. Sorry, I can't remember what it's called in English. Can you believe that? I've been in France far too long.
7:18 am
Alan said…
Yes. Catrin has to have extra-large exercise books, while Gwilym has to have A4, so we can't use the same packs or the same plastic covers (protége-cahiers)

Ah - so a critérium is a porte-mines! Super. We have some of those.

papyrus - you're a useful person to have around. Thanks!

I think in English it's called a mechanical pencil, though the older type that took big thick leads was called a clutch pencil.

The worst useless item from last year was a huge tube of white paint that we searched EVERYWHERE for, and eventually found in Cultura. Did they use it? Of course not!
7:48 am
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