Stuff that's hard to find here

Don't get me wrong. Paris is a pretty good place to live. Great food, nice sights, plenty of culture, always something to do, the works.  But you have a very hard time finding certain items here, and given the vast numbers of expatriates from every conceivable country here, you'd think you could get just about anything.  Not so. For example, I celebrate when I am able to find:

red onions -  One would think that the sweetly subtle flavor of red onions would make them desirable in a place known for its culinary temptations. Instead, I am lucky to find half a dozen small, scraggly depressed-looking specimens tucked away in a remote corner of a store. I've never seen them at a veggie stand, but maybe they exist in the Latin Quarter. Yet I can't even sneeze without getting leeks wet. What the hell do you do with leeks? OK, soup. Then what?

inexpensive childrens' shoes - All clothes in Paris are expensive, it seems, but even by Parisian standards little kids shoes are ridiculous. Eighty euros for something the kid will outgrow in 6 months? At today's exchange rates that's about $100. I wonder if kid shoe salespeople are like real estate agents in the States, making a commission and ecstatic to sell a couple pairs a week. "Felicitations, Jacques," the manager might say, "you've just hit the 1,000,000 euro mark. Welcome to the Golden Sole Club!"

spicy peppers - any kind:  C'mon mes amis!  I know most French cooking doesn't do spicy, but you've got people here from Thailand, India, Morocco, the Phillipines, you name it. And Cajuns were French once weren't they? I occasionally see serranos, which are pretty mild. I've never seen a fresh jalapeno here. And a habanero?  Mon Dieu!  That word is never even whispered for fear of angering the ghosts of long-dead French chefs.  Instead I get generic pimientos that I think I could cut open and rub in my eye without even wincing a wee bit.

churchgoers - France has tons (literally!) of beautiful churches and renowned cathedrals. Perhaps you've heard of Notre Dame?  We have a modest little Chez God around the circle from us, complete with happy bells that toll on the hour. But if you go there on Sunday, they might ask you to sing in the choir. "Ah, oui, you see, we are a beet short on altos tooday...."  Even accounting for the fact the French don't like to get up too early, especially on weekends, I think their church-to-churchgoers ratio is tops in Europe.  They're good places to find other Americans, however.

mailboxes - Wanna mail a letter? Haul your rump over to the post office. There are very few of those little metal drop boxes you see elsewhere. The boxes here are very small and you need a treasure map to find them in the city.  You never leave mail for the post man at your residence. Fortunately there are many post offices scattered around and you are seldom more than a 5 minute walk from one, so it's no big deal. 

I'll keep looking. Does anyone know if you can freeze jalapenos?