Discussion
Do the french not like this lovely milk based beverage??
We stopped at the services and found a Paul coffee place and when asking for a coffee au lait, we were handed a tiny cup, HALF FULL of boiling hot coffee with a drop of milk in. On trying to explain futher in broken French, well who am I kidding, broken English and also pointing alot about what we actually wanted, the confusion that followed is too much to even begin to explain.
I have decided that in future Le Mans trips, I am going to make a valid attempt to not comunicate with any French people, this will save them time, save face for me and not upset my party when I return with whatever the person has served me, right or wrong (always Wrong!), simply because my French is terrible.
Learn French you say? Now that's not very British is it!!
We stopped at the services and found a Paul coffee place and when asking for a coffee au lait, we were handed a tiny cup, HALF FULL of boiling hot coffee with a drop of milk in. On trying to explain futher in broken French, well who am I kidding, broken English and also pointing alot about what we actually wanted, the confusion that followed is too much to even begin to explain.
I have decided that in future Le Mans trips, I am going to make a valid attempt to not comunicate with any French people, this will save them time, save face for me and not upset my party when I return with whatever the person has served me, right or wrong (always Wrong!), simply because my French is terrible.
Learn French you say? Now that's not very British is it!!
My mate john speaks about as much french as i do urdu. After a couple of stops he got braver and said i'll order the food this time. As a true englishman he proudly marched off to order a hot dog and a coffee. He returned moments later the proud owner of 2 cheeseburgers 2 lots of chips and a brace of diet cokes
.....not deterred he then ventured back to ask for some salt...and returned with 2 satchets of mayonaise
......I ordered the food from then on....
.....not deterred he then ventured back to ask for some salt...and returned with 2 satchets of mayonaise ......I ordered the food from then on....
Hey guys if you wanna big milky coffee ye just need to ask for a "GRAND CREME " me I prefer a"CAFE CALVAR" which works magic for me, thats a small rocket fuel coffee and a shot of calvados, chuck two sugars in, take a sip out of the coffee .....lob in the calvados.....then neck the potion..........shudder.....then off you go....garanteed to get you another 100 clicks up the road
Yeh
Say, café crème and they'll get it.
Grand crème is double café with milk.
But Café au lait, they should get it too.
The funny thing is : say it in a hotel, pension, guest house, everyone will know what it is and you'll get what you want.
Say it in a Paul (a chaine with young trainees), a service station... and no one will know...
The funniest thing is capuccino where you'll get most of the time coffee with Chantilly cream on top of it !!!
Generally speaking, most bars serve a terrible coffee and the coffee culture which has invaded the world with Starbucks and co... has not reached most of France yet !
PS : for the calvados, say café calva !
Say, café crème and they'll get it.
Grand crème is double café with milk.
But Café au lait, they should get it too.
The funny thing is : say it in a hotel, pension, guest house, everyone will know what it is and you'll get what you want.
Say it in a Paul (a chaine with young trainees), a service station... and no one will know...
The funniest thing is capuccino where you'll get most of the time coffee with Chantilly cream on top of it !!!
Generally speaking, most bars serve a terrible coffee and the coffee culture which has invaded the world with Starbucks and co... has not reached most of France yet !
PS : for the calvados, say café calva !
Edited by ERA on Wednesday 12th July 20:04
hey wotever ................always get what I want.........apart from a memorable meal I had in cherbourg one year, the translation on the menu said pork sausage,.........what came out were strange white sausages...smelled orible and by christ tasted orible !!!!! boudain.....as I found out later were tripe sausages.........YUCK...and double YUCK really set me up for the boat ride home !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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