I lost count how many times I've visited New England. It's gotta be at least 25 times (Vermont being so close but we've visited Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine quite a bit too). And then there's upstate New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida. I'm straying off New England a little now.
Anyway, it's not hard to see why Maine is the perfect setting for a Stephen King novel.
Man, there's something about that place.
***
Two more things about our trip to Maine. First, and this is more of a general observation of what we've experienced in the United States, I find when it comes to offering flexible menus in restaurants, the U.S. trails Montreal. Here, if you don't want vegetables with your meal there will be no issue substiuting for it -after all you're paying for the plate. In the States, the server will simply scratch it off on their pad and not offer a replacement while still charging for the full plate. I find that a little lame. You can return an ant to Wal-mart, yet to replace potatoes with carrots is an alien concept.
Montreal may copy a lot of its trendy ideas from elsewhere but when it comes to doing right by the customer they're pretty good.
Second, there are a lot of Quebecers in Maine. L'il Quebec if you will. I told myself, here in Maine, a Quebecer can open a little shop entirely in French and no one will say jack-boo to them. The market alone will decide if they survive. There are no archaic language laws or language police to accost citizens under the guise of cultural protection.
The reverse is not true. An American can't come into Quebec and do as they please. They must "conform" to the language laws of the province.
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