I have always idealized Quebec. I don't know why. I guess it is because its frenchness just makes me feel like it must be a very civilized and cultured chunk of Europeishness that I can drive to. I've never been to Europe, so Quebec is probably the closest I'll get for a while.
My only real brush with Quebec was a few years ago when my husband and our not yet one year old and seven year old were driving to northern Michigan from Waltham. We were going to go through Canada since that was the most direct route. Please reference
google maps and type in "waltham, ma to traverse city, mi" for a visual of what came next. We left Waltham at about 3 a.m. and ended up in Quebec around 11 a.m. We first called husband's mom and said "we're in Quebec! It's so funny! Everyone speaks French" She was like, "that's great." Then we called my dad and said the same thing to which he replied a very similar sentiment.
We merrily continued our journey, stopping at subway to get a le b.l.t. I had to order. It went like this "le blt si vous plait?" "quoi?" "le tomate, le lettuce et le bacon sur la pain, si vous plait." They were confounded by my le bacon....le jambon? le porc? le quoi? Well, whatever they gave me, at least husband ate it. Then I tried to practice my amazing french at a gas station. Bon jour. Merci. They were like: good bye. you're welcome.
Toronto, which we were supposed to be going through, kept getting further away as we kept driving. Finally, we decided to consult our map and realized WHOA! WTF are we doing in Quebec? We are supposed to be about 500 friggin miles west of here and 200 south. SOMEONE wasn't reading the map properly somewhere around northern NY. Thanks mom in law! Thanks dad! If we had spoken to my mom and his dad, we probably would still be deaf from them yelling "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN QUEBEC!" Oh well, surely there was some lesson learned there.
At any rate, this whole post was born tonight because I worked the little league "shack" (concession stand) with a true Acadian, which Waltham is chock full of. She was from New Brunswick and grew up with french as her first language. She also married a Waltham townie. I also learned that
a. Waltham is full of Acadians (she said she could point out at least 12 outside of the shack, which is a pretty small area) and
b. that New Brunswisk is actually the only province in Canada with 2 official languages: french and english. I thought Quebec's national language, or at least one of them had to be French. But non! Ce n'est pas vrai! C'est englais! WTF!
Anyway, I still believe that Quebec (but not the parts we saw so much) must be a very cultured and refined place brimming with tradition and elegance. For that reason (and many more) I'm glad to have my own little Acadia here in Waltham.