Waking up to French confusion - I wonder if this is how the few prisoners felt when the Bastille was stormed?
We are renting an apartment in Paris for the second leg of our "Winter European Extravaganza" - not the official title- and I let the apartment owner know that she can call me any time after 5:00am Eastern to process the credit card deposit. Well I forgot! and so this morning I was not only woken up at 5:00 sharp by our hungry and barking dogs, but by the telephone. On the other line was a very sweet French woman who might just be thinking twice about renting her apartment to some crazy drunken American.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: What? Hello? What's wrong?*
Florence: Bonjour Johnette. This is Florence from France.**
Me: What? Who? Where? Huh?*
Florence: Oh, is this too early? I am sorry but you told me that you wake up early and that I can call you after 5:00am. My husband is here with his iPhone and I can now call to the US and we can process the credit card for the deposit on the apartment. Is this ok now? Are you awake or have I woken you? Hello? Johnette are you there? **
Me: What? Huh? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. No, no, I'm awake (drop the phone), I'm here, It's no problem. I just have to find the phone. *
Florence: Excuse me? Yes, I am calling you on the phone.**
Me (talking on the standard corded phone): No, no... I just have to find the...can you hold?***
Me (wondering to myself): How do you say cordless in French?
*In groggy English
**THIS WAS ALL IN RAPID SUCCESSION FRENCH - which is usually no problem as I would like to think that I am fluent, but just not at 5:15am!
***Talking now in the hybrid language of French-English-Sleep
I found the cordless phone and we were able to get through the transaction quite smoothly after that. My French even improved a bit, but really, I can't be held responsible for my grammar in my mother tongue before 6:00am let alone in a second language.
