Where’s the beef?

Thanks to everyone who elected to play the French-themed “Monday morning trivia” this week… and congratulations to Catpants and Nicole, who correctly guessed (B) “Où est le bœuf?” More on this in a sec.

The tricky thing about this particular question is that all of the answers have played a role in my life.

A) “La voiture parfaite” (a note stuck on a poster of a red 1992 Ford Mustang convertible)
I was in high school when the Mustang went through a major redesign. My father brought me home a brochure from a Ford dealership that folded out into a huge poster of a red convertible Mustang, to which I actually affixed this sign. However, the ‘Stang was more an object to be coveted than something to be laughed at.

C) “Est-ce que je peux aller aux toilettes?”
While this phrase was not actually on the walls, it was said often enough — as it was the only thing my “twin” cousin Tracy could remember in French — that it might as well have been there. To this day, this is probably the only thing everyone who took French with Madame Stevens can still remember how to say. We couldn’t go without knowing it. 🙂

D) “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?”
For all of those who think this is too raunchy or out of character for me, you’re wrong. (HA!) However, this didn’t really become something humorous until much later, when my brother and I were trying to teach our mom and her best friend, Vicki, how to say it while on vacation in Florida. We had to write it out phoenetically, which was HILARIOUS. It was also really funny (I always thought) that two kids were teaching mothers how to proposition someone.

This would have been the ironic/funny choice for those who knew that Thierry and I spent most of our time together (in the US and again in France) in a pretty passionate fling. I still haven’t told my parents what *actually* happened in France. 😉

As for our correct answer, B) “Où est le bœuf?” …

I had attended a French language immersion camp the summer before, where we’d been forced to speak French 100% of the time for two weeks, and one of the signs in the hallway (which I picked off once camp was over), was the “Où est le bœuf?” sign. For whatever reason, I just thought it was funny, in a silly kind of way.

However, I guess the “Where’s the beef?” campaign never made it to France, because Thierry found the “Où est le bœuf?” sign in my bedroom really funny — in a strange kind of way. To be honest, I’m not sure he ever really understood why the sign was in my bedroom. I say that because, when I got to his house in France, in my bedroom there was a sign hanging that read, as though to remind me of home while I was so very far away:

“Where’s the beef?”