Day 5 – Today was a home schooling day. It was also Daddies last official day at work so the pressure was on.
First job, grab some essentials as we have already run out of a few bits. Daddy headed to IGA Express (which is kind of their equivalent to Sainsbury’s) and started to try and decode French.
Short stop by the onions which looked rather large.
IGA has a few French flares that are interesting. One the wine section is enormous and not connected to the rest of the alcohol section. The beer section is through a separate door that leads to a large freezer type room with beer stacked on the floor.
Cheese has its own section in the middle of the store with two staff. Imagine walking through Tesco fruit and vegetable and the whole middle has been replaced by a circle of cheese in cased in glass.
Why don’t we have this in England?
Daddy needed his ice 🧊 but after pacing back and forth he couldn’t find the ice. It wasn’t in the frozen section, it wasn’t with the alcohol. Do people here not like ice?
Most of the trip so far is self serve, Daddy can move from aisle to aisle aimlessly. When you need to ask for something the dynamic changes.
Firing up Google Translate is the first course of action. Où est la glace pour les boissons?
Daddy starts to assess people in the supermarket for their helpfulness based purely on looks and the amount of food in the trolley.
Spot a man, black shirt (matches the IGA workers) and a cap, he is alone but the sandwiches. Daddy shuffles up behind him and waits. Like a coiled snake ready to strike.
Big smiles and shove the phone into his face. He looks at me, then in the purest American accent states “I don’t work here Buddy”
Daddy has found the only American in Saint Anne. I ask if he knows where the ice is? He doesn’t! Daddy noticed as you leave the store there is a giant chest with a penguin on it.
You need to walk past the tills, outside where the trolleys are, then come back inside to buy ice. These folks must be trusting as in the UK people would just take it and walk off.
Grabbed a large bag of ice. Went to the till, normally Daddy uses the self serve as you can flip the language to English. But, the ice has no barcode. I need to find a person.
The lady tapped my ice into the system, then asked something in French. She received a blank stare back. Hopefully it’s not important. She asks again. Pressure building, Daddy goes for the classic “Bonjour, excusez-moi, je ne parle pas bien français. Parlez-vous anglais?”
Credit or debit card?
Credit! Thank you, bye bye
Meanwhile back at Lake Serenity, homeschooling is in full swing. Today is all about the human body.
The boys learnt about parts of the eye and the skeleton, also lots of funny dancing and actions while Daddy was trying to work.
Tomorrow we have decided it’s our first day into the wilderness and will be exploring Wilson Falls in Parc régional de la Rivière-du-Nord, the river is so powerful that it used to power a paper mill. Time to explore!
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