Lost In Translation

The Home of Poutine, originally uploaded by mickzilla.

We made it to Quebec City - after battling a painful Friday rush hour traffic situation going through Montreal, At least an extra 1.5 hrs in the hot sun, stop and go. I was practicing my French swear words during that time.

So Quebec City is 400 years old - and you'd think in all that time, that they would have evolved into an English speaking province...

But seriously - I'm a firm believer in the "When in Rome.." philosophy, and i did a seek in the old brain for my Grade 9 French knowledge to see how far it would get me. (Mind you, this was French 9 in BC, which is probably about a Grade 2-3 French equivalent in every other province, except maybe Alberta)

So I walked into the hotel, everyone in front of us was speaking French, and when it was my turn, I go up with my "Bonjer! - Une resarvay-shun pour Robinson". She took about a 5 second look at me, and responded with, in a very thick French accent, "One moment please". - She was obviously not impressed with my attempt to use to the language.. She grabbed some paperwork, entirely in French, and said "Sign 'ere, 'ere, and 'ere". I did, and got my key - but then realized I have no idea what I just signed... Lets hope it wasn't a French contract for my soul.

We were starving - but concerned on how we would complete the process of ordering food with the Grade 9 French - and then like an epiphany, it came to me - the French word for "Poutine" is "Pountine!" - Not to mention we're also in the birthplace of this staple of the Canadian diet.

We hit he car, and found a drive-through close to the hotel with big pictures of pountine on the menu - I pulled in, and after a bunch of unrecognizable French words came out of the intercom - I proudly said, "Poutine, See Voo Play". A slew more of unrecognizable French words came out of the intercom and very confused with what to do next, i responded with "Large?"... Again, there was about a 5 second awkward silence, and I got the very thick French accented English phrase, "One moment please". - This time, the manager came on the intercom, and said "We don't understand what size poutine you would like?" - thinking quick - I said "Grand" and she said "What?" and I said, "The biggest one please". Thank god, that seemed to work - and we headed back to the hotel with the best poutine we've ever had.

Tomorrow is the final stretch and a 10hr drive to PEI and the old man's house!