The challenges of travelling in Quebec: a quick visual

05 Jun, 2008

The challenges of travelling in Quebec: a quick visual

Posted by andrea tomkins in: travel talk

I am working on a piece about a recent day trip we took as a family. I’m not going to reveal much more about it now (you’ll have to wait until it is published) but I did want to say, boy, as an anglophone it is rather CHALLENGING to travel in Quebec sometimes, isn’t it?

For example, check out this sign:

We exactly didn’t know what it meant, only that we had to be CAREFUL about SOMETHING.

HELLO, a translation or an illustration would be pretty helpful here!

I looked it up when we got home. I know what it means now. Do you?

15 Responses to "The challenges of travelling in Quebec: a quick visual"

1 | Renee

June 5th, 2008 at 10:15 am

For some reason I just thought “herbe” might be as in plant and then that lead me to poison ivy and I was right. How I came about that, I’ll never know! LOL
Maybe my high school French {learned in Saskatchewan} does comes in handy!

2 | andrea

June 5th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Yes. I considered that too, but I wasn’t TOTALLY sure. For all I knew they were trying to warn me about an man-eating herb that happened to be puce-coloured. ;)

Why not post a proper sign like this one?

3 | porter

June 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am

I didn’t know, I actually didn’t even make the connection between herbe and a plant because I was looking at the stairs! I googled it. Andrea, none of your family speaks french? For some reason I just assumed your family would….I lived in Ottawa for 5 years and didn’t speak french so I have no idea why I’d expect your family to speak french!

4 | andrea

June 5th, 2008 at 11:07 am

I took a couple years of (late) French immersion but didn’t keep it up. If I did I’d be totally bilingual right now. *sigh*

5 | Chantal

June 5th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Don’t even get me started on why signs in Quebec are mostly all in french, it is a pet peeve of mine and I am french. But really, you would think in the National Capital region they would go Bilingual. If it was a day trip you couldn’t have gotten too far from Ottawa. Jessh. It wasn’t like you were in the Saguanay. :)

6 | a grrl with a blog

June 5th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

living in Quebec for 4 years, I hated the lack of English on signs.

Having traveled through Europe I was surprised to realize that Quebec is the only place that I have been where they translate traffic signs. In countries where English is NOT an official language, the traffic signs are all in English (only)…

I know what you mean about the more descriptive sign – much easier.

7 | Nicol

June 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

I could see how that would be a problem. In some ways it might be interesting to to have this challenge.

8 | MomOnTheGo

June 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

I was thinking ‘flea plant’, given my familiarity with the ‘marchÃ© aux puce’ (flea market) out highway 17, east of Orleans. Good French test for today. I’m looking forward to hearing about the day trip since I’m always looking for things to do with Reid.

9 | tali

June 5th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

hmm, as an american, I love the french-only signs because

1) they make me feel like I’m in a different country, and I can’t afford europe right now… ;)

2) they make me glad that I chose french in high school instead of spanish (how did I know it would be so useful?)

andrea – are your kids in french immersion? I don’t remember if you’ve mentioned that, and I’d be interested to know why not (if not) since my eldest is going into Kindergarten this september…

10 | Karen

June 5th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

Without looking at the other comments, I’m pretty sure it means poison ivy. Yeah, a translation would be warranted on that one. Maybe in a few different languages.

11 | anon

June 6th, 2008 at 7:12 am

In Quebec, it’s all french or nothing.

12 | Scattered Mom

June 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

My French is limited to telling you what the weather is, asking for the time, and reading a cereal box.

Us BC people have no need for French. Cantonese, well…that would come in handy.

I’m guessing that “herbe” is something to do with a plant. According to Dictionary.com’s French to English translation, it says “bleaches on grass has chip”.

Other sites say something like “There’s fleas on the grass”

I’d be SO unhelpful in Quebec.

13 | kate

June 7th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

14 | BC

June 9th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Poison ivy makes sense but “grass fleas” first came to mind.

15 | Family day trip to Wakefield at a peek inside the fishbowl

June 12th, 2008 at 9:11 am

[…] yes, the photo of that french sign was taken there […]

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alex: For a classic Canadian treat for valentine day , try a BeaverTail (a fried dough pastry) there its yummy
Juliet Luiz: I was at this park today and saw the foundation and historical sign which got me curious and let me to your blog post! Great information:) too bad t
Rowyn Tape: Hello, I was sitting at Easter dinner with my grandmother and she was telling me this story. She is Herbert Lytles daughter who eventually bought the
Bernie: I freeze ball sizes of bread dough for beavertails each winter season.Easy to thaw, roll out and fry. Best winter treat!
Jen_nifer: I feel very much the same about my SUP. Floating with snacks is fantastic! When I go on water with some current, I make sure that I paddle into the cu
sam: Great article. This is very insightful. Thanks for sharing
Renee: I just saw one yesterday on a small patch of grassy land near the Mann Ave 417 exit near Lees Station, Ottawa, ON. I had no idea they came in black!

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a peek inside the fishbowl