Practicing French

First, it has been pointed out that I have failed to introduce my new companions…

Squirrel, Oak, Beetle, Salamander (aka Robin), Pine (in front)

Missed story from yesterday.  Most of my travel friends are currently enjoying practicing their French, to varying degrees of ability and success.  Robin is having more fun than last year as she’s been practicing ever since, and her confidence has grown, but occasionally she just doesn’t know a word, and in her determination to do it herself she will revert to actions and sounds.  The best example of this happened yesterday when we knew thunderstorms were in the forecast (zodiac will be cancelled for that) and she was trying to ask when they make a call about it, but she had no word for thunderstorm, so she made very dramatic hand movements and a CRRRSCH sound.  Everyone laughed but the woman got her meaning.  What we learned later, from Oak (who is fluent) is that the woman turned to her and said (in French) “don’t laugh at her, she’s trying” which is awesome!

Today provided many chances for everyone to practice their french, starting with the hotel breakfast.  It was not buffet style like I’ve seen in most hotels, but one chef who serves a fairly simple set of options, but she speaks very little english, so practice it was!  Starting with “room number” to which Robin proudly responded “105” (in french, excited that she understood the question and could answer).  The woman looked confused and said no.  There was a few minutes of confused broken english/french before Robin realized that she had given our Quebec City hotel room number, and this hotel had no 105.  Ahh room 2 made much more sense.  I just sat and giggled.  Maybe my favourite part of this trip is watching her try; she just seems to have so much fun, especially when she realizes her mistake had absolutely nothing to do with the language spoken!

We then headed off to the Marine Mammal Interpretation Center which is a fancy pants way of saying Whale Museum.  It’s small so we all estimated an hour to explore it.  Two hours later, we were very full with whale knowledge of all kinds.  It may not be big, but the staff were amazing and had so much knowledge.  Of course, the two hours did NOT include the time in the gift shop!

Finally we were on the road again, back down through the mountains toward Quebec City.  A brief stop was made for lunch at Subway where everyone got to practice their french once again.  Everything from bread and cheese choices to all the vegetable toppings.  Some did better than others, but we had a server who seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were!  You know, whenever Clare and Robin get around to taking me to Europe, I’m really gonna love watching them try different languages (*hint hint*)

Our last stop of the day was Sainte Anne de Beaupre (basilica), which we went to last year.  Beautiful inside and out.  Not much else to say really since even this little bear knows that some things just require respect. 

And then the humans decided they were done for the day.  Actually nothing else was planned on purpose (something about mountain driving being unpredictable) but it sounds way better when I complain that they just bailed on me.

Whatever!