Originally Posted by axolotl

Here's a story that Québecois cyclists may appreciate. I was on my Bike Friday (a folder w/20" wheels) on le P'tit Train du Nord (a wonderful rail-trail north of Montreal), and a cyclist asked me in French what kind of bike I had. I responded in French, and she no doubt realized I wasn't Québecois myself but also that I wasn't a native French speaker. However, my accent is mostly European French and not identifiable, I'm told. After I explained about my Bike Friday, the very next thing the woman said was, "mais vous êtes d'où, monsieur?" (which basically translates to "where the hell are you from?")

Another time in Canada, an American friend & I had just boarded a ferry with our bikes to go from the îles de la Madeleine (Magdalen islands) to Prince Edward Island. A couple got out of their vehicle and started chatting with us in French. They were intrigued by our Bike Fridays. I think that I was talking to the husband, and my friend was talking to the wife. (My friend also speaks fluent French.) After a few minutes, the man asked me why we had come all the way to the Magdalen islands from Europe. I told him we weren't European. He just assumed that because we could both speak French, that we had to be European. A couple of hours later during the voyage, he sat down and chatted with us in almost flawless English (which is why Montreal is the one francophone city in the world where I'm sometimes a little scared to speak French).

I sometimes have a difficult time understanding Québecois French, but the Acadian French spoken on most of the Magdalen islands is a lot more difficult to understand. We stayed on a B&B there, and saw mainly the wife. One day, her husband came in while we were eating breakfast. My friend asked him what he did for a living. He said something which sounded like "suis pechdoma". After the husband left, my friend asked me if I understood what the man said. I told him that I thought he said "je suis pecheur de homard". (I'm a lobster fisherman)