Champers in Champagne...lost in translation

During one of our visits to Reims, we stayed in Grand Hotel de L'Univers in Reims. We really enjoyed the hotel. The hotel is just around the corner from the main pedestrian walk with many restaurants, cafes and bars, so the location is ideal.

The rooms are a bit small and the bathroom walls are very thin, but the hotel is clean and the staff were just great!

We met the manager of the dining room, Michel, one night as he was serving us in the hotel bar after a particularly hard day of champagne tasting (not!) and when he found out that we were from South Africa and that my husband is half-Dutch, we just couldn't stop chatting - he was very interested in our country and the Dutch were his favourite football country. (I had the difficult duty of translating the men's conversation, since neither understood the other's language). We had not intended on eating in the hotel's restaurant, since there were so many other restaurants in the area and we thought it might be too uptight, but luckily he convinced us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The food was fantastic and the service excellent.

The only thing that was a bit off was the menu translation. Michel explained that a local lady offered to help with the translations since her English was very good...big mistake. Most of the dish descriptions, were not 100% correct, but at least they were decipherable. The big problem was that one of the dessert "translations" was not only incorrect, it was just plain wrong...on every level and had us in absolute stitches. For some reason, we didn't look at the desserts on the menu until after our main course. As Michel left our table, I burst out laughing, soon followed by my hubby - we just could not stop...off course the champagne that we consumed with our meal gave us that glorious giggly feeling already, so mixed with the gem on our menu, we just couldn't get a grip. Michel came to our table immediately and during our fit of laughter, I could see that Michel became slightly annoyed, so I quickly gathered myself and tried to translate the mistake. His mouth fell open and with a loud "Oh mon dieu!" he grabbed all the menus and some tip-ex (white-out) and started removing the description from all the menus.

Look at the menu below - "Nems de Banane" (off course we took a copy!!) - please note that it is a swear word, so if you are easily offended by crass language, sit this one out. (Also, please note that the Tourist menu price will more than likely not be the same since this was about 5 years ago.)

To everyone who goes through the trouble of translating their menus so the English speakers can understand it, please note that we really do appreciate it, so don't be upset if it makes us laugh on occasion - it creates some unforgettably worthwhile moments.