While I was in France I wanted to buy some chocolate, so I asked the desk clerk at the hotel where a convenience store was. He looked at me like I had two heads. So I asked where to buy chocolate, and he helped me. Later I looked it up - the word I knew for a convenience store is “depanneur”, but apparently in continental French that’s a mechanic.
There actually was a nice épicerie owned and operated by an Arab guy called Mohamed near where I used to live, and he called it “Momoprix”. It’s still there but he got sued by monoprix so now I think it’s “chez momo”
They don’t teach QC French in canadian schools tho. That’s how the anglos get clocked so easily.
They may not now, but they did.
While I was in France I wanted to buy some chocolate, so I asked the desk clerk at the hotel where a convenience store was. He looked at me like I had two heads. So I asked where to buy chocolate, and he helped me. Later I looked it up - the word I knew for a convenience store is “depanneur”, but apparently in continental French that’s a mechanic.
Québécois : le dépanneur
Français de France^© : l’arabe du coin (typically, the ridiculously small and dense convenience stores that are pretty much always open have been run by people with Arab origins). Or we just call them “épicerie” if we don’t want to sound casually racist
The clerk just told me where a Monoprix was nearby.
There actually was a nice épicerie owned and operated by an Arab guy called Mohamed near where I used to live, and he called it “Momoprix”. It’s still there but he got sued by monoprix so now I think it’s “chez momo”