Day Two Hundred and Forty-Seven - Bonne Fete!

I didn't mention it yesterday - but when I was younger I spent a fair amount of time in the USA. I went to camp there and we spent about 99% of our holiday time there. My dad used to like to test Americans of their knowledge on Canada - kinda like Alex Trebek [seriously - there are always a healthy number of Canadiana questions on Jeopardy] and since he was a big American history buff he could always answer questions tossed back his way. One thing I discovered about Americans is that a lot of them assumed that every Canadian could speak French. I was suprised @ this because I didn't really know many Canadians [other than me] who could speak French and also - Quebec is just one province - why are they so popular in the USA? They must have some good PR people. So yes, my French language skills failed to impress Americans as they just thought - well, duh - you are Canadian so *of course* you speak French.

Anyway, lots of celebrations this week - Canada Day, Independence Day and also it's Quebec City's 400th anniversary. By North American standards they are positively ancient. I love Quebec City and find it to be the most magical/whimsical place in Canada [please note: I have not seen very much of Canada so if your corner of it can kick Quebec City's ass please let me know]. I was interested in seeing some of the coverage of the celebrations so I watched the nightly news in French. And - apparently this is where my ignorance shows up as while the broadcast was in French, it did not originate in Quebec. I kinda forgot that there are French-speaking Ontario residents as well - ooops. There was some coverage of the celebrations, but mostly it was just regular Ontario news [I couldn't determine where their origin was exactly] but in French. I failed to understand a lot of it as my French is beyond horrible @ the moment. I liked the entertainment news @ the end when they reviewed movies in French and also the sport report. It was interesting because when they interviewed someone [or yanked from another source] and they spoke English [like say Will Smith for Hancock] they just kept it in English, assuming their audience would understand. And while it's probably true that if you speak French in Canada you most likely do speak English - it's kinda offensive and not something that would fly the other way around.

So - bonne fete Quebec City! I do hope to visit again soon. I know - I have so many other Canadian places to visit, but Quebec is a guaranteed winner so why mess with that?