Thus we drove down all the way to Bulle, a small French-speaking town, and we waited for the cyclists to come cycling down the main road. First, lots of police cars with the sign 'Gendamerie' (I could understand that!) came down first. Followed by police motorcycles. Announcing something in French which I evidently couldn't catch. Then suddenly the first few cyclists came speeding down the road which was sloped downhill. As fast as the motorcycles, omg! At least my sis caught one picture of them. Hahaha. Then a few minutes later, the whole peleton of cyclists came rushing down. Quite scary actually. Like a stampede. Followed by a fleet of cars carrying water bottles, spare bicycles and tyres etc. There was a group of Swiss-French boys (about 10 years old) who were really really crazy over the cyclists. They screamed and shouted and jumped up and down when the cyclists passed by. Just my luck to stand so near them; I think I was deaf for a moment. Haha.
Our car really needed a wash. And here in Switzerland you hardly see any car wash centres. So happened we caught sight of one in Bulle, and my dad sent me to ask the lady in the shop if the car wash was open. Okay my mum tags along as I try to phrase what I want to say. Then I ask. Then she replies in a string of French. (Scary okay!) And I CAUGHT IT! HAHAHA! YAY! Then I began translating to my mum. And my mum told me to ask another question, how much does it cost. So I did. Repitition no.2. This time I didn't catch everything. D: My mum scolded me. Since my mum learnt French before long ago, she said you know I bet she said this and that, and I had to argue no, the lady said sth else! Sigh. So, car wash closed, no car wash.
Another incident. We drove up into the mountains and stopped by at a little village for tea. My dad wanted the 'potage du jour', and he thought it was some potato soup. Well, it wasn't, of course. Potato is pomme de terre, not potage. So my mum asked me, what's potage? I didn't know! Result: scolded. My vocab's so limited, so lousy. Bleh. D: My mum was like, "Come on lah, buck up! You can't go on like this! Why is your French so bad? After 3 years?!" Sigh. I was trying to recall what I learnt in the Restaurant/Food chapter in sec 1 and 2. We learnt Soupe du jour, didn't we? They didn't write Potage, so I didn't know. Okay blame me for not checking out synonyms... Sigh. Potage = soupe.
We went to see Lausanne, Vevey and Neuchatel, the larger Swiss-French towns on our way back to Basel. Lausanne and Vevey were towns along the Lac de Leman, a really beautiful lake. The sun rays glistened on the ripples so beautifully, and there were a few yachts bobbing up and down. And the ducks! Omg, so so cute! Paddling in the water. Haha. Had to reserve some restaurant in Neuchatel. And the stupid waiter kept saying je ne comprend pas! I felt like boxing him up, omg. I'm already trying to speak in French!! I guess I was too soft. :P Too bad, found out that restaurant was an Italian one, so we didn't eat there in the end. I stay away from Italian food whenever I can. Fattening + allergic (I think). Heh.
Doing my best to keep French with me. :P The free French papers were all gone in Fribourg when I arrived. Oh wells. Unfortunately there aren't any free French papers here in Basel.
The Enchanting Twilight
Labels: Swiss-French region, Tour de France
