Alone and Unobserved

Five French-Language CDs I Purchased in Montréal:
(and my ratings out of four stars)

• Daniel Lavoie,
  Docteur Tendresse
  ✶✶✶✶
• Les Trois Accords,
  Gros Mammouth Album (turbo)
  ✶✶✶✶
• Isabelle Boulay,
  De Retour à La Source
  ✶✶✶
• Marie-Élaine Thibert,
  Comme Ça
  ✶✶✶✶
• Marc-André Fortin
  (self-titled)
  ✶✶✶

I was talking to one of my coworkers a few months ago, and after I had told her how exhausted I felt having to deal with school, and work, and (most especially) my family, she gave me a long look and said it sounded like I needed a vacation. And really, I clearly did. My first idea was to go to Europe, but I couldn’t decide between France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia, and after I tried to organize a week-long trip that included all of them, I decided that Europe would have to wait until I wasn’t COMPLETELY INSANE.

Montréal was the obvious next choice, because, even though French is my second language, I’ve never technically been to a French-speaking country. (Turns out the French House at BYU doesn’t count.) Also, it would be relatively inexpensive, and concentrating on a single city for a week would be more feasible than trying to take in the whole of Europe in one giant gulp. So I called up my friend Craig, who had already been there twice, but who didn’t at all mind a third trip, and we started making plans for May 8-15, 2007.

Three French-Language Movies I Watched at Serge and Stéphanie’s:
(all four stars out of four)

• Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
  This side-splitting re-envisioning of the Asterix canon has become one of my favorite movies, ever. The one problem: most of the humor is completely untranslatable, and is thus only accessible to French speakers. Sorry, non-francophone readers.
• The Dinner Game
  Serge & Stéphanie had prepared me for how hilarious this movie was, but not for the unexpectedly touching moments scattered throughout.
• The Closet
  Daniel Auteuil plays a complete loser who pretends to be gay in order to keep from being fired. Whether or not this premise interests you, the film is much better than it sounds.

What can I say about Montréal? I loved it. I loved the restaurants, the language, the architecture, the shopping, the métro, the planetarium, and the endless medley of churches and cathedrals . . . and let us not forget all the hot guys walking around, nor how gay-friendly the city is.

Despite all the aforementioned wonderful things, I have to say that the best part about my trip was getting to know Serge and Stéphanie, a Montréal couple Craig introduced me to. If we ever needed to go somewhere (the airport, the mountains, or Québec City), Serge would show up between his classes in electrical engineering and drive us there. Stéphanie fed us a delicious dinner our first night there, and every time we stopped by the two of them made sure to ply us with food—crêpes with ice cream and maple syrup, chocolate milkshakes, popcorn, bagels, hot chocolate, etc. Stéphanie and I had hours of delight discussing our favorite musicians, sharing pasta-cooking secrets, comparing American Idol to France’s Star Academy and complaining about the bad grammar that surrounds us. Both Serge and Stéphanie were very excited to help me investigate as much francophone music and cinema as we could cram into the handful of days I was there. I can’t wait to go back to Montréal, and when I do (within the next couple years, I hope) I’ll definitely be looking them up.

Two French-Canadian TV Shows I Watched in Montréal:

• Ma Maison Rona 2007
  I couldn’t understand anything Benoît Faucher said (due to his incredibly thick Québécois accent), but in the end that didn’t detract from his hotness at all.
• Que le Meilleur Gagne
  This fairly standard quiz show was made more exciting by the fact that I could answer almost all the questions.

Photos of my trip are coming, I promise!