French Connection

Although only at the iconic pub for two months, the couple were given a rushed education in Australian frontier culture.

For Alex, a degree holder in literature and an ambition to study languages when she returns to France, the Aussie slang and jargon was the highlight of her stay.

“I really love it here at the pub, with the locals and the beautiful scenery,” Alex said in her thick French accent.

“And I have kept a book of my favourite sayings, but some of them are too rude to put in your paper.”

“Give birth to a politician”, “fair dinkum” and “Bob’s your uncle” were just three of our sayings the petite brunette had difficulty understanding when she first arrived, but now happily recites them with a cheeky glint in her eye.

Sound and lighting engineer, John or Jonno as he prefers to be called described their time at the Lion’s Den as an “amazing adventure” – especially Christmas night when he had an eye-to-eye meeting with his first snake.

“I just went out to have a cigarette and I was gazing out thinking about nothing in particular and then I saw it,” he said.

“Some locals thought it was a great joke and got the snake down to show me.”

But what did the locals learn about the adventurous pair?

“A lot of the time people asked about eating frog’s legs and snails,” Jonno said.

Greeting some of the locals with a hug and a smile, Alex got the “thumbs-up” from some of the locals enjoying a beer on the popular pair’s last Sunday on duty.

“She’s definitely ‘fair dinkum’,” Jack Ryle said of Alex.

9th February 2010 Issue 500