Good things really can come from Canada, eh? Except when you are visiting Montreal, in the French section of town, and you only speak English. When my friend and I were traveling there on business a few years back, we asked our hotel concierge for a recommendation for a fresh, tasty place to grab lunch-because we found the antithesis the day before. In her broken English accent, she explained a “very fine place to eat business lunch.” Oh, she must mean a good place to grab a quick bite to eat.
We arrived at the described local, and we were greeted in French by a gentleman who looked just like Paul Shaffer from the David Letterman show-funny yellow tinted lens glasses and all. As we passed through the entry area and up the stairs, the place was packed! Everyone was dressed in business formal! Oh this must be a great place to eat, even though we still haven’t heard one word of English, and we are extremely under-dressed. Our waiter arrived impatiently and said something in French that sounded like he was talking about day four on the Tour de France. The silence seemed like an eternity as he impatiently awaited our response. My friend spoke up first saying, “Um, I’ll have a Coke” I immediately followed with a “me too.” He must have understood us, as he grudgingly marched away towards the kitchen going to retrieve what we hoped would be, or at least would look like a dark-brown, bubbly soda. Then we opened our menus. Of the 65+ menu items, there was only one thing that my friend and I could read. Something, something “Salmon.” My friend said “I’ll have this” as he pointed to the words that said “Salmon.” Now it was my turn, I panicked and pointed to an item on what was the appetizer menu. I ended up with a small salad and a Coke. We only saw our waiter twice, once with the beverages which turned out to really be Coke, and our food — the salmon which had, as I recall a black bone in it!
I think we would have been treated differently, and ordered food that we really wanted had we been fluent in French and had a pair of these shoes on: Amblesides, black with bone! The shoes of the day, a real treat for your feet.
Amblesides are custom shoes by a new found fellow friend and lover of shoes! It says on the site “The Amblesides are perfect for that afternoon stroll in the park. A great everyday casual shoe with that Fluevog twist we’ve come to love. Made with soft padded and perforated Nappa leathers with a contrasting crepe side strip. Mens only. Whole sizes.” Sorry Bettys, Mens only. By the way, they are on sale.
Let me know what you think, eh?
