Ruth thanks everybody for the birthday wishes. She says she had a good day! We started off by going for a hike. The weather was pleasant, calling for a high of 14C (57F), although it didn't reach that until towards the end of the day.
Obviously a busy spot for hiking. Cars started showing up just after breakfast to take advantage of a nice Sunday.
We set off around 10:00am...
Looking back at the parking lot.
The blue van had also stayed the night.
Still some fog in the valley.
Heading uphill.
The trails are well marked.
Made it to the first viewpoint.
GPS 44.9789, 5.181675
Really pretty area.
Made it to another viewpoint.
Very cool with the clouds down below.
So I had mentioned that there were quite a few people out hiking, and we had actually bumped into two different groups of people about our age. must have been some kind of hiking club.
And of course hikers tend to say hello to one another as they pass, and often make some kind of comment. And of course we don't speak French. I mean, we can spit out a few words and I still remember much of my public school French that we were taught in Canada... but that's hardly enough to have a conversation.
But it's honestly embarrassing being in France and telling people that you are from Canada. And that you can't speak French.
Canada advertises itself as a bilingual country... French and English. To the rest of the world, that means that everyone speaks both languages. In reality though, that is far from the case. In fact, in the western half of Canada there are probably more people who speak Chinese than French! And, sure, there are many bilingual people in Canada... but most of them are bilingual with either French or English and one other language.
But that doesn't change people's perception in the international arena. Especially when we are originally from Ottawa, which is the nation's capital, and is located on the border of Quebec.
We are honestly embarrassed that we don't speak French.
Scenery along the way.
On the way back down we came across this abandoned house.
Interesting table and chair.
Made with parts from Fred Flintstone's car?
Beautiful valley we walked through heading back to the parking.
Back in the village of Beauregard-Baret.
Beauregard-Baret.
Today is looking like a rain day, so we are off to do some driving. Hoping to make it to the south coast today.
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Record low Prime Exclusive deal on the big Bluetti AC200P Power Station.
And in Canada...
Ha - Fred Flintstone's car! You dated yourself there, Kevin, but I saw it right away too. :) As for French, why not do some Duolingo lessons when you have downtime? We did the Duolingo Spanish for years and learned a lot. Sure, our Spanish is still elementary, but we found it was better than most tourists' and even a lot of expats' in Mexico! Can't beat the price of the free app, either. I took French in high school and remember only a tiny bit myself.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the birthday wishes, I had a wonderful day,
ReplyDeleteWe can't explain why you can post comments now but we are glad that you can. Blogger must have changed something because I know that we haven't made any changes ourselves.