>When that happens to me I think of a posher way of saying the word in English, then pronounce that word as if it were French, et le plupart du temp j'ais raison.<Yep ... I learned that trick too. But sometimes my mind just goes blank ... I think I'm getting too old for this. <g>
>Get yourself on a French camp-site and ask to be pitched near the French families. That way you're exposed to them froim the moment you exit the tent/van/trailer in the mornings. Staying in a hotel one is isolated from everyone else anyway.<Nah ... I haven't camped in a very long time and I don't feel like starting *that* up again. Sorry, I like my hotels. <g> But here's an idea that's almost as good. Once you find a restaurant that you like, visit it more than once. Become a regular. The waiters will become much more friendly and talkative. It's amazing. As an example, we were only in Paris 4 days this year, but we had our petit déjeuner (breakfast for anyone else reading this) at the same sidewalk cafe every morning. On the last morning of our visit, the waiter starts telling us places that we should visit, he even draws a map on a napkin. All in French of course ... this particular waiter didn't speak any English at all. We also get mistaken for being either British or Canadian ... Gary thinks it's because his French accent doesn't have a harsh American sound to it.
>Mind you, in Nice you'll need to learn a whole new French pronunciation, as they have a sort of franco-hispano-italian thing going on. e.g<Yeah, we found that out when we were in Nice for the first time last year. Very interesting accent.
>BTW, don't be expecting golden sands in Nice, like Cannes - it's all shingle beaches - bit of a disappointment :-)Disappointment? Not really. We're not really "lie out on the beach" types of people anyway. I like visiting Nice in the off-season too ... from what I've heard, the place is *impossible* in the summer when there are wall-to-wall tourists! And Cannes? ... I wasn't all that impressed with Cannes when we went there last year. Way too glitzy and touristy for my tastes ... unless I missed the quaint part of Cannes? Nice has it's quaint areas of town. My favorite spot though was Villefranche-sur-Mer ... very quaint and only a short train ride from Nice (only one or two stops from where we were staying).
~~Bonnie
