Among the Francophones

My wife and I spent three days in Quebec province last month. Quebec is the only region in North America with a French-speaking (or Francophone) majority. French is its official language, and about 95% of all Quebecers are capable of speaking French. Almost 80% list French as their mother tongue. People from around the world can experience America in Quebec, but from a distance greater than in other Canadian provinces.
    Contemporary Quebec culture is a post-1960s phenomenon supported and financed by both of Quebec's major political parties, who differ not in a right-vs-left so much as federalist-vs-sovereignist/separatist. (Note that the stop sign pictured is not bilingual, but in French only.)
    I studied conversational French intensively my senior year in college and visited a family south of Paris for a week in 1966. That was over forty-five years ago, and I was a little surprised that I could grasp most road signs and the gist of brochures and travel booklets and websites. (I was glad for the bilingual menus, though; even English menus in "nicer" restaurants in the United States use too many French and Italian culinary terms for my taste.)

The French we heard and saw in Quebec had an effect on ma femme also. But, then, although she hasn't studied French, she has read Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past in translation. And now, I see, she's reading it again.
    Our first day back in Vermont, she said, "I keep expecting people to speak French to me."
    And the second day back, I heard her say, "I keep expecting to see ARRÊT on stop signs."
    Remembering the cultural pride many Francophones take in their language, I took the opportunity to opine: "It gives you an idea of the effect a lifetime's speaking French can have on a person."

Moose version (elan)

Rest area ahead (what a relief!)