We didn't have French class on Tuesday (Nov. 11), so we took the opportunity to go to a Food Festival here in town. There were various booths, including a booth for coffee. The small dry erase board in the photo was hanging near where customers order their coffee. We thought that it was a cute way of ordering different sizes of coffee: "Cafe" for large (5 euros), "Cafe SVP" for medium (SVP= "please") (2.50 euros) and "Bonjour 1 Cafe SVP" for small (1 euro). When Bob approached, he ordered "Cafe SVP." He received a small coffee and was charged 1 euro. He pointed to the board and asked the employee selling coffee that he wanted the "Cafe SVP". He then told Bob that the board was just a joke ("une blague")! If one ordered by just saying "Cafe", it would be rude and that customer would have to pay 5 euros. If one ordered a "Cafe SVP" ("Coffee, Please"), it would be not so rude and the customer would only have to pay 2.50 euros. If the customer said "Bonjour 1 Cafe SVP" ("Good day, one coffee please"), the customer would only be charged 1 euro. In actuality, there was only one size...always 1 euro!
We laughed at ourselves rather than at the joke! :)
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