For days we had been fantasising about the legendary cafes of St Pierre - that little bit of France just off the Newfoundland coast. We arrived on a Friday evening and, as in France, most things were closed for the weekend. No matter, it was a brilliantly sunny evening and it wasn't long before we were sound asleep safely tied up on the Club Nautico Quay having registered with customs.
Seeking local advice this morning we set off in pursuit of a cafe for breakfast and I was the nominated linguist. Sally does the German and the Spanish and I get to do the French and the Latin. For some reason we seem to do better in German and Spanish speaking countries. Anyway, we entered the only Cafe open on a Saturday in St Pierre and I marched confidently up to the counter and said, "deux cafes au lait et deux pain au chocolat". The guy behind the counter looked perplexed and so I repeated it with a 'S'il vous plaît' just to be sure.
He shook his head, "in English please".
I translated for him, "two chocolate croissants please"
He still hadn't got it so I said it again but a bit louder.
At last he got it and he beamed as he picked up the freshest of chocolate croissants. "Here we call them pain au chocolat".
Linguistically deflated yet again!