{"id":5080,"date":"2010-04-03T14:30:30","date_gmt":"2010-04-03T20:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=5080"},"modified":"2020-03-19T13:08:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T17:08:33","slug":"little-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=5080","title":{"rendered":"Little Shop in Brugge"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Your French is magnificent.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It was an old shopkeeper who spoke to me as I walked to the till to make my purchase. He was initially very quiet as I made my way through his small hidden shop nestled anonymously on a street not frequented by tourists. His clothing and handcrafts were beautiful; and, he remained very quiet when I told him of how beautiful they were. This is why I was surprised when he spoke of my French.<\/p>\n

I replied right away, “Thank you. And, thank you for not laughing at me. French speakers generally don’t acknowledge my bad Acadien.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I know it’s Acadien,”<\/em> was his matter of fact response.<\/p>\n

I was shocked and didn’t know what to say; I couldn’t believe that someone who spoke perfect French on another continent could know of a little known regional dialect from the Maritimes. He paused for a moment to wrap up the necklace I’d bought for La Ni\u00f1a<\/em>. <\/p>\n

“It was Acadien and Quebecois speakers who liberated Belgium.” <\/em><\/p>\n

And there was the shock again; and, chills danced up and down my spine when I realized the profoundness of what he’d just said. There was an instant connection between his family and my great-uncles who spoke of whole villages of Belgian people cheering Canadian troops as they worked their way through the country in 1944.<\/p>\n

“A lot of Canadians died during the liberation,”<\/em> was all I could think of to say… not the wittiest response.<\/p>\n

He handed me the package and at the same time gave me a magnificent smile as he looked over his half moon glasses.<\/p>\n

“And, that is why your French is magnificent.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n“Your French is magnificent.” It was an old shopkeeper who spoke to…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Little Shop in Brugge”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[142,454,254],"tags":[406],"class_list":["post-5080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-belgium","category-brugge","category-europe","tag-memorable-moments","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t