I went to Besancon, in eastern France, this past weekend to just get away and see some friends. I had a great time. (You can see the photos here, here, here, here, here, and here.) While there, we went one afternoon to the Citadel that is the biggest tourist attraction in Besancon. It is huge, and houses several museums and...a zoo! It was a little bizarre to me, a zoo inside a citadel on top of a hill in eastern France.
We arrived late, and so didn't have time to see everything the citadel has to offer. I'm actually not a big fan of zoos (I don't think that God meant for lions and monkeys to be caged up for us to enjoy getting to see them), and I've been to a million museums in Paris. So I wanted to just walk around the ramparts and enjoy seeing the views. While we were doing just that, we heard the most strange sound. I thought it was a baboon or some other large, scary monkey.
Everyone in that part of the citadel began walking quickly towards the sound to see what it was. (Apparently, my dislike for seeing creatures who shouldn't be caged up went right over the ramparts of the citadel, because I wanted to see what was making that sound! And boy did I ever hope it was caged up so it wouldn't get me!) A whole bunch of us ended up in front of a glass staring at a lion that seemed to have a hairball. You know that sound that cats and dogs make when they have a hairball? Now magnify the sound because it's coming out of a much bigger cat. That's what we heard.
While staring at the lions, the BG's wife and I begin discussing the possibility that the lion had a hairball. Some French teenagers were right near us, and they all gasped in shock to hear us speaking English. (According to the BG's wife, she, the BG, and our other friend, Flower, are the only Americans/native English speakers in all of Besancon!) So the teenagers begin whispering about us, not realizing that we speak French and can therefore understand them.
The BG's wife leaves to go get some pictures of the hacking lion, but I stay right where I am because I am so amused by these teenagers. They're whispering things like, "Don't you take English? You should take advantage of this opportunity and talk to her to practice." Finally, one of them speaks up, and says in very slow, very punc.tu.at.ed en.glish--
"Are. you. A. mer. i. can. or. Brit. ish?"
I responded in French, "I am an American."
All six of them gasp in shock that I speak French. I tried not to laugh out loud.
I continued, "But I live in Paris."
More gasps of shock. I'm not sure why it was so shocking that I live in Paris. Maybe they were shocked that an American would choose to live in France? Or that someone would leave Paris to come to Besancon? I don't know. But they sure were shocked.
Three of them kept talking to me, them in English and me in French. The other three, however, kept staring at the lion, two shy to try to practice English and still enthralled by the beauty of the lion. (She'd quit hacking, by this point.) The shy three had the following interchange, which might just be the funniest thing I've ever heard a French person say.
"I've never seen one before."
"What? A lion or an American?"
"...well...neither!"
I hope that I left these teenagers with a good impression of Americans. Because I can just hear them now, going home to their parents and saying, "Mom! Dad! We went to the zoo today and guess what we saw?! AN AMERICAN!"
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