My encounter with a Frenchman

A couple weeks ago I met a very interesting man while waiting for the bus. When you take the same bus system every day you start to see "regulars." You start recognizing someone by their coat or their face, even though you have never personally talked to them. Those that you have talked to stick out more and sometimes they will start up another conversation with you if they see you. But when someone you have never seen before starts talking to you, while waiting for the same bus, that is special. (To me at least.)

Picture this: You head out the door on a Saturday morning with plans to be busy most of the day. It is a little warmer outside, and the sun is shining brightly. (Usually here in Quebec, when the sun is shining it is a colder day. That has been somewhat of a depressing fact for me in the past because I come from sunny California where the sun is always warm. But today was a little different in that it was a little warmer than the past days had been, and you could feel a little of the warmth coming from the sun. I have learned to really appreciate a sunny day here.) You walk down the road to the bus stop hoping you haven't missed it. You are pretty sure you haven't though, because you are almost ten minutes early. The question now is if there will be people waiting there as well. (If there are, that is usually a good sign that you haven't missed the bus.) You turn the corner and the first thing that catches your eye is a man standing at the corner of the bus stop, wearing colonial garb. He honestly looks like he came out of a history book with his coat, boots, satchel, hat, and ponytail. He just looks more French.

You walk up to the bus stop and politely stand a few feet away form the man, but close enough to be able to see the bus when it comes. You stand there a few moments in silence as a few more people start coming to the bus stop and join in on the awkwardly standing around and trying to avoid talking or looking at anyone else. The Frenchman eventually turns to you and starts talking.

He explains that he on his way to a Founding Fathers celebration. A good amount of people in Quebec City can follow their family line all the way back to when the city was first started over 400 years ago. I think they celebrate this every year and have a booth in the local mall and everything. Some of them come dressed in period attire, this man certainly was. He started showing off his costume, talking about the material and whether it was warm enough or not for that day. I am sure he said more than that, but I couldn't understand it all.

But throughout this whole time, he has a huge smile on his face. He doesn't care that people are looking at him. At one point a bus drove past, it was not the one we were waiting for. As the bus turned the corner, the bus driver was blatantly staring at the man. Our friend here laughs out loud and waves at the bus driver as he goes past. He laughs making a comment about how shocked that driver must have been. We eventually get on our bus, but we are separated because he finds someone he personally knows on the bus. He starts talking with them and I take a seat farther away. But I couldn't help but watch him. He was so full of energy and laughter as he continued to explain his costume and why he was wearing it to his friends. If he caught someone staring, he would just start talking to them and explain his costume. He had an infectious joy and humor about the whole thing.

We both ended up getting off at the same stop and I watched him go with that big smile on his face. I honestly wanted to go back to the mall and see the booth before the end of the day, but my plans got changed and it ended up not happening. But his attitude and smile had brightened my day. The day seamed to be a lot more special because of that. It is quite interesting how one person's attitude can effect those around them. My brief encounter with this man in the morning had made my day. My hope now is that one day I will be able to do the same for someone else as he did for me.