Fluent in French, Mais Non

Champagne at House of Mumm

Champagne is spelled the same so there’s that

I am not fluent in French but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  No, not really, but if you’ve seen the commercial you will get the idea.  To my gal pal friends who travel with me for the first time to Paris I am an expert.  I can follow signs and navigate from Charles de Gaulle with ease.  In their jet lag stupor it’s easy for them to look at me like I’m their genius tour guide.

The reality is I am a French fraud.  For a gal who is one-quarter French and took years of high school French, I don’t speak the language very well.  I have been unable to get past Level two of Rosetta Stone and have come to the conclusion that the day God handed out the fluency chip I was absent.  One thing I have found that will help you speak French better guaranteed – champagne!  It seems that after a glass or two of yummy bubbly, I speak the language really well.  Vocabulary that escaped me earlier in the day suddenly pops into my head and I speak with ease.  Humm…

There’s more than one type of French fluency

Although I am not fluent in the language, I am fluent in ordering great wine, fabulous food and finding bargains while shopping.  As far as public transportation goes, the Métro is basically the same as the Boston T system.  It’s color-coded with north/south and east/west destinations to orient riders.  Sometimes my excellent sense of direction fails me and we get lost.  Getting lost is half the fun!  Consequently, we have found many of our favorite boutiques and hole in the wall spots by accident.