Le Starh-Bahks...

... en ma route.

This morning on my way in to work I was amazed to see the boulangerie that was derilict until last week has now transformed into a Starbucks. Generally I do not go to these establishments out of principle, albeit quite a benign stand on the establishment being that the coffee is substandard and the prices exorbitant. My French friends however have another view and was once engaged in a very heated argument with OH over the evils and how it was selling a warped lifestyle to the unsuspecting masses. However with the piss poor breakfast selection available to me (McDonalds is opposite the new Starbucks but isn't open for brekkie, and there's only so many croissants one can stomach)I decided to abandon the priciples and to pop in to see what was on offer.

Perhaps it was too early in the morning and the wafts of coffee-approximations had yet to ignite the neuronal firings, but it was extremely surreal. Having not been in one of these shops for a while, the layout was familiar, the menu comforting and the muffin selection bland. Everything was mostly in English, even the muffin names, but when it was my turn to order at the till, I automatically asked for a raspberry muffin in French. This is how is came out:

'Je prende un 'rahsp-beh-ree muh-feen' s'il vous plaît.'

Having asked for one, I did a quick double take to check that it was written as such on the cards and that I wasn't taking the piss. Check. The card stated 'raspberry muffin', and not 'muffin framboise'. I have since checked the dictionary and I can see that the translation of muffin, is indeed, muffin, but saying 'raspberry' in a French accent was all very 'Allo 'Allo.

And the guy behind the till?

Yep, his name was René.