A quiet Sunday, February 2023. My eldest announces she wants to buy a comic with her pocket money. The other two (naturally) jump straight on the bandwagon. I spy an opportunity for a run and tell them they can ride their bikes to the good newsagent in the next town that has a decent stock of kids’ magazines. They reluctantly agree. We run/ride to said comic shop (via the scenic route), only to find a handwritten sign taped to the shutter saying they’re exceptionally closed (“fermeture exceptionnelle”… classic France.) So we ride on, try two more places without success (one is never open on a Sunday; the other was open until noon, but we get there at ten past). Eventually, after almost ten miles, we buy the magazines at the little place on the roundabout… all of 400m from our front door!! And which I suspected was the best option from the outset.
