Sergent Major - A French Children's Shop

Whilst we were on holiday in France, we went to a big city called Cahors, Steve's mum kept going on about a really nice children's clothes shop called Sergent Major, that was there. Some how we didn't go in it when we visited last year?!

She was right, it was lovely! And actually had a similar amount of boy items to girl items. Does that annoy anyone else, you go to look a baby/toddler/children's clothes and there's always a much bigger selection for the girls, us people with sons are very limited! They sell up to age 14 years, and even some of the older boy items I thought were cute, haha!

We did get Ben a lovely outfit, which we didn't pay for Ben's Great Nan did. I will worn you it is a bit pricey!

I love this coat, I was looking at the stand of coats and said 'This is nice' and Ben's Great Nan was like, 'Do you want it for Ben?' This cost €45.99. I love the check lining and that the mittens are attached to the coat, so you hopefully won't lose them.

We also chose these dungarees, which were €27.99.

This little polo top vest we got to go with the dungarees, this cost €13.99.

To match the dungarees outfit we also chose this cardigan, this was €27.99.

Lastly, Ben's Nanny (Steve's mum) bought these socks to match as well, these were €4.99.

I love that they have a little theme running throughout the items, this is obviously dragons and knights and castles. One of the girls themes were hedgehogs. Hoping to go back again next year, and purchase Ben some bits ourselves.

Ben hasn't worn any of the clothes yet, as he is still a bit small for his age, and we purchased all of these in size 24 months (aka 18-24 months), but he's beginning to wear a few 18-24 month items now, so hopefully it won't be too much longer before he's wearing these.

Tips for staying in France with a toddler

Whilst we were in France this year I discovered a few little things that may be helpful to you.

1. Supermarket trolleys don't have straps on. So if you have a toddler/baby that won't sit still it's best to bring along their pushchair or have them in a carrier strapped to you.

2. Proper high chairs seem to be few and far between in restaurants. And if they did have one it may not have straps. Quite a few restaurants seemed to have booster seats but there was no strap to be seen not even one to attach the booster seat to the chair. I was so glad I took our Totseat with us, I would definitely recommend taking one or something similar with you.

3. If you're going to be purchasing nappies, Pampers are SO expensive so go for a cheaper brand. The first time we travelled we purchased Carrefour own brand, these worked very well. This year we purchased Pommette, these weren't so good.

4. Food wise, the selection of baby food in the supermarkets were amazing (and looked rather good), there was loads of fruit purees as well as main meals. There was just not any baby snacks, and I couldn't even find any little packs of raisins. As I didn't know what there would be I did take loads of toddler snacks for Ben like Carrot Stick crisps and some little fruit snacks, so I was prepared.

5. The milk colours are different in France, whole milk is red. And we couldn't find any whole milk in any of the service stations on the way down, or on the P&O Ferry crossing either. We didn't even bother looking on the journey home!

Holiday to France 2014

Just to overwhelm you with some of the photos that I took on our holiday to France.

Ben on the ferry, sleepsuit and jacket both from Jojo Maman Bebe.

Photos taken in Prayssac during the clothes market. Ben's vest and shorts are from Next.

We spent a few hours in the afternoon at a lake, not too far from the town we were staying in. Ben just loved paddling.

We also visited Rocamadour and had lunch there.

There was a monkey sanctuary there as well. Couldn't believe I managed to capture a mother and father washing their baby, so cute!

These last two were taken in Puy l'Eveque on our last night when we were out for dinner.