first of all, glad you enjoyed it, despite having the bad luck of such terrible weather-thats a real drag and all in all unusual for august. We can have some rain, often big storms, but they come and go. Its unusual in aug to have such a prolonged number of days of crappy weather.
Yes, they do a pretty good job of the food, despite having to deal with a heck of a lot of people.
re taking a pee, part of that is the French thing, we (I say "we" despite being an Anglo) certainly have a diff to Americans or Brits vis-a-vis things like that, same with sexuality, its all part of life and not something to be ashamed of. Even though Im not French, coming from an outdoor background, seeing having a quick pee is for the norm when hiking in a group, so this aspect of French culture was certainly a part of Quebec society that I liked (not peeing in public! I mean being less uptight about stuff)
cheers
My understanding is that that year was a very abnormal one. It had been raining all month. Some of the school fieds we camped on were saturated. You had to watch where you walked because the grass was half sumberged. One day we had to take a detour because a river had flooded the road.
I hear what you are saying about the culture, Language aside, I felt more like I was in Europe than N. America. One night I went to get something to eat in a restaurant. I actually felt like I needed to ask if service was included like it is in some European countries.
One funny langiage-barrier story I like to tell. One day we had some smooth dirt riding. Because of the rain there was a little mud. I had finished and was walking in camp when a woman who was just finishing was screaming in French and wobbling as she rode very slowly along sie of me. I had no idea what she was saying and thought maybe I had done something to piss her off. All of a sudden, she grabbed me in a panic. I was thiking "What the hell did I do?" Then I realized what was going on. She couldn't get unclipped. It was probably the mud. I grabbed hold of her bike and let her lean against me while some other people worked her shoes free of the pedals. In the background I heard someone say in heavily accented English "Don't worry. He will hold you up."