A Visit from the Tooth Mouse
Our road trip continues. We spent a rainy and cold week in Normandy – which felt appropriate for visiting WW II sites, but annoying all the rest of the time.
Normandy: Mont-St-Michel in the rain
Then it was a week visiting the gorgeous Renaissance castles in the Loire Valley.
Loire Valley: Castle in Azay-Le-Rideau
It was during this part of the trip that Z’s first tooth began to come loose. In France there is no Tooth Fairy. Here the Petite Souris (little mouse) comes to collect teeth and replace them with money. Same basic principle – but a mouse instead of a fairy.
Z really wanted the Euro that she had been told was the standard rate for a lost tooth in France! The pharmacist in our village had given her the most adorable little container – just the right size to hold a euro coin – so she was ready.
Tooth Box for the Petite Souris
How to Use the Tooth Box
However, Z was worried. She thought that since we were driving around the Petite Souris wouldn’t be able to find us. Or if the tooth fell out after we left France the Tooth Fairy wouldn’t know she was back in California. Our many hours driving in the car offered ample opportunity for our chatty 5-year-old to explain everything that was probably going to go wrong with this important tooth loss experience.
Of course, as luck would have it, things did go wrong. She got hit in the face with a soccer ball and the tooth fell out in a playground full of grass and small pebbles. Even with a playground full of children and parents searching we couldn’t find the tooth. We emailed the Petite Souris to explain, and put a small white pebble into the tooth box as a proxy for the lost tooth.
It worked! In the morning the pebble was gone and the Euro had appeared. Tooth magic works no matter what side of the Atlantic you’re on.
That is the most adorable Tooth Fairy story I’ve heard in a LONG time, Diane! Or should I say Petite Souris story? So glad Z scored her Euro!
What a great story! Brooke has her first loose tooth also…but no soccer balls yet! Personally I like the the tooth mouse MUCH better than the tooth fairy. There’s just a billion questions about how the fairy gets in the room….but mice, well they are there all the time plain an simple!
The price of a tooth sure has gone up. Very happy that la petite souris has found Z’s tooth.
We were introduced to the toothe mouse by a cuban taxi driver in orlando Fl. and it made so much more sense that our daughter has stuck with it and shared it with many others. In the story we were told the tooth mouse rolls away the tooth and it becomes a pearl as it wears down as it is pushed along. The mouse sells the pearl and that is where he gets the money he pays for the tooth. there is a new book out about the tooth mouse at Amazon.