Michael and Aurelie

Late one night - around 10:30 p.m. - a young man knocked at the door. With his heavy French accent, he inquired about room availability and cost. I had no rooms, and he seemed to find the cost somewhat prohibitive anyhow.

With a little dancing in the way of 2 differing languages, I realized he was looking instead for a place to camp overnight. He and his girlfriend wanted a camp-ground, and, he stressed, "A showering place."

I informed him of the provincial camp-ground one kilometre up the road, but I was unsure if they had shower facilities.

"People come here, to Haig-Brown House, for breakfast sometimes, for $15.00", I said. "If you find no showers there, you can shower here if you buy breakfast." Michael was delighted, and went straightaway to tell Aurelie, his girlfriend. They sped off in the night.

When they didn't show next morning by the appointed time, I figured they found other arrangements.

They were just late.

Arriving an hour after my suggestion, I cooked them breakfast while we had interesting conversations, mostly with trying to interpret each others colloquialisms. We, or rather they, had many laughs as I tried to pronounce "Aurelie"; the 'r' is not rolled on the front of the tongue, but in the back of the throat: Oh / reh / leh.
Finally, I called her 'Oh'.

As it was my perfect niece's 17th birthday, and she had been an exchange student in Quebec last year, I asked Michael and Aurelie to sing her happy birthday in French. Our phone call woke up my niece, who giggled for the whole of the very long French conversation, and when the phone was finally relinquished to me, she laughed and stated she hadn't much idea of what was said because she was still so sleepy. No problem sweetie; we all enjoyed the moment.

Michael is traveling in Canada for a year, and Aurelie was here for only weeks. She'll be coming back, around 2010 Olympic time with her 1 year work visa.

Visit Mike's blog for more of his Canadian / North American tour, that is, if you read French.
http://mikecanadatour.over-blog.com
Sandra