French Level 1
Unit 7: Leçon 3a
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Describing Cost
& Ordering Food
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Hey, how's it goin'? Yep, I'm back.
Let's start of with a review of the information on food from Unité 6, Leçon 1b. Here goes:
 Track 53
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Des Phrases
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SOUND BYTE GOES HERE
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EN FRANÇAIS
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EN ANGLAIS
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J'ai faim
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I am hungry (I have hunger)
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Je voudrais un sandwich
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I want a sandwich (polite form)
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S'il te plaît, donne-moi un sandwich
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Please, give me a sandwich
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Merci!
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Thank you!
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As I told you before, Gille and I hang out A LOT of the time together. I was dying for a hamburger and I said to Gille:
Track 54
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1. Gille! J'ai faim!
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2. Qu'est-ce que tu veux manger, Luc?
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3. Hum.... Je voudrais un hamburger!
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4. Bon! Allons au chez McDonald's?
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One thing that I need to tell you, Gille hates, and I mean HATES fast food. When he said, "Let's go to McDonald's", I knew that he really didn't mean it. So, instead of McDonald's, we ended up at one of his favorite cafés. By the way, a "café" in French can mean one of two things. One is the drink, "coffee", and the other is a small restaurant with tables, both inside and out. Gille loves to sit outside and watch the people walk by, a favorite pastime for many French people. Not only is the watching a big deal, but being watched is too. Lots of the French women will take the time to be certain that they look great just to go to lunch because they know that people will be watching them! Many of the men are the same way! Anyway, from the example I just gave you, you can see that the café is a really big part of the culture. But there's more. Here, I'll tell you what I mean.
In France, most adults don't really like their kids playing with other kids in the house. To have a place to "hang out" most of us have a favorite café that we like to visit and hang with our friends. Gille's café of choice is "La Closerie des Lilas" at 171 boulevard du Montparnasse. Gille says it is a cool place where lots of way famous people used to hang out. People like Hemingway, Lenin, Trotsky, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. That's why he likes it, he says, AND he likes the café (coffee). I like the place too because they have most of the drinks that we have in the States, which works out sweetly for me because I don't drink café. They also have the WAY most delicious sandwiches I've ever eaten in France!
Anyway, to get on with the leçon, knowing that a hamburger was not going to be part of the deal, I decided to order a "sandwich au jambon" (a ham sandwich). Jean-Jacques, our favorite waiter, came up to us to take our orders. It was then that we noticed that the prices on the menu were missing. You know what that means! Everything is going to be more expensive.
Here's what happened:
Track 58
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1. Ah, Monsieur Gille! Monsieur Luc!
Comment allez-vous?
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2. Très bien, mon ami!
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3. Moi aussi!
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4. Que désirez-vous, aujourd'hui?
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5. Je voudrais un sandwich au jambon,
s'il vous plaît!
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6. Un café au lait.
s'il vous plaît!
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7a. Les prix ont changés! C'est un peu plus chèr!
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7b. Combien coûte un sandwich au jambon?
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7c. Vingt et un francs (about $3.00)
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7d. Ça marche! (Translation: Great!)
(Literal Translation: That walks!)
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8. Vous desirez quelque chose à boire?
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9. Mais oui! Un soda, ummm, un Coca,
s'il vous plaît.
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10. Bon! Merci!
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Check that out! See how nice and polite Jean-Jacques was to us? That's one of the cool things about eating at a nice French café, the waiter or waitress, will use the formal or "vous" form when speaking to us, even though we know him fairly well, AND even when he's obviously older than us. That's a way to show respect to us because we're his customers.
Ready for more! Cool! Me too!
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