Sam: Bonjour and welcome to French en route! My name’s Sam and I’m a huge fan of all things French. In this podcast, we’ll take a virtual tour of different parts of the French-speaking universe and discover real-life stories — in French, of course! I'll be here to guide you along the way, explain unusual vocabulary and give you some context and background to the stories. And by the way — this isn’t only a language learning podcast, it’s also a fun way to become familiar with the French language and culture, no traveling required!

To make things easier, we’ve put together a synchronized transcript that you can read whilst listening. You can find this, alongside images and videos related to each episode, at babbel.com/podcasts or follow the link in the episode description.

Today we're traveling to Brussels, the Belgian capital. Did you know that Belgium has three official languages — Flemish, French, and German? And guess which one is the most spoken in the capital? French of course! So, ready for a little walk through Brussels? On y va !

Our storyteller Hugo is a student. It’s 2015, it’s autumn, and like every Friday he meets up with his friend Léo in a bar to drink Belgian beer: the most famous beer in the world! I can already feel a hangover coming on… Let’s join them, shall we?

Hugo: Nous sommes en 2015, c’est l’automne et comme tous les vendredis, je retrouve mon ami Léo dans un bar de la place Flagey.

La place Flagey se trouve dans le quartier étudiant de Bruxelles. Tous les étudiants vont là-bas pour faire la fête. Et bien sûr, nous aussi !

Au bar, Léo commande deux bières : une Orval pour lui et une Rochefort pour moi. Vous le savez sans doute, les bières belges sont très fortes.

Et pour nous, c’est facile de repérer les touristes parce qu’ils ne tiennent pas l’alcool et font des folies dans la rue…

Sam: Hugo tells us that la place Flagey — Flagey square — is in the student quarter of Brussels and so all the students head there to party, he and his friend included! At the bar, Léo orders an Orval and a Rochefort — two Belgian trappist beers, which, as Hugo reminds us, are very strong. And for them, it’s easy to spot the tourists — repérer les touristes, since they can’t hold their alcohol and do foolish things — ils font des folies…

Hugo: Avec Léo, on boit, on discute et puis on joue aux cartes avec nos voisins de table. Plus tard, je vais chercher deux autres bières et j’entends deux personnes qui parlent très fort.

Et je reconnais une voix. Mais, oui, c’est mon pote Mathieu ! On a fait Erasmus ensemble. “Hey, Mathieu, comment ça va ?”

Mathieu me présente son ami : il s’appelle Arnaud, il est Français. Et … il parle vraiment très fort. Clairement, il a trop bu. Il crie : “on va manger, bande de schmet ?”

Tout le monde rigole. En Belgique, on dit “schmet” pour insulter quelqu’un. Bon, Arnaud est vraiment bourré !

Sam: Léo and Hugo drink, chat and then play cards with their neighbors at the table. Later, Hugo goes to get two more beers and overhears two people talking very loudly. And he recognizes one of the voices… it’s his pote — his mate Mathieu! They did the Erasmus students exchange program together. He asks Mathieu how he’s doing…

Mathieu introduces his friend Arnaud, who is French and who is talking very loudly. It’s obvious he’s drunk too much. Clairement, il a trop bu ! He shouts: on va manger, bande de schmet ? Which translates as, “Are we going to eat, you bunch of… schmet?” So schmet is a bit of Belgian slang worth knowing, since you might hear it some time, although I don’t recommend saying it unless, as Hugo says, you want to insult someone. It means “jerk” basically, which is why everyone in the bar laughs.

Obviously Arnaud is really drunk: il est vraiment bourré !

Hugo: On décide d’aller à la friterie. Et comme toujours, on commande des mitraillettes. La mitraillette c’est un sandwich très populaire en Belgique avec de la viande, des frites et de la sauce. Bref, c’est le repas parfait après plusieurs bières !

Après ça, on marche vers le centre de Bruxelles.

Arnaud nous parle de Madison, sa copine américaine ou plutôt de son ex: ils ne sont plus ensemble et pour lui, la rupture est vraiment difficile. Il est très triste et maintenant, je comprends pourquoi il a bu beaucoup de bières !

Dix minutes après, on s’arrête devant un parc pour fumer une cigarette. Et soudain, Léo nous dit : “Les gars, Arnaud a disparu !”

Sam: The friends decide to go to a fried-food joint. And, as ever, they order des mitraillettes — Belgian baguettes with meat, fries, and sauce. Hugo tells us it’s the perfect thing to eat after a lot of beer. Outside of Belgium, une mitraillette is a machine gun, so I’d advise you to take a moment to consider where you are before asking for one!

Anyway, after they walk toward the center of Brussels. Arnaud tells them about Madison, his American girlfriend or rather his ex: they’re no longer together and the break up — la rupture — was very difficult for him. He’s very sad and Hugo now realizes why he’s drunk so much beer!

Ten minutes later, they stop at a park to smoke a cigarette. Suddenly, Léo says: Les gars, Arnaud a disparu ! — “Guys, Arnaud’s disappeared!”

Hugo: On cherche Arnaud partout mais on ne le voit pas. On demande aux étudiants qui font la fête dans le parc et malheureusement, personne ne l’a vu. Mathieu commence à s’inquiéter parce qu’Arnaud est complètement bourré. Il imagine le pire.

On se sépare pour vérifier toutes les rues : je retourne vers le sud, Léo va vers la gare et Mathieu cherche dans le parc royal.

Je marche seul une minute et soudain j’entends quelqu’un qui crie en anglais. C’est Arnaud !

Sam: They look for Arnaud everywhere but can’t see him. They even ask some students partying in the park but no one’s seen him. Mathieu is starting to get worried because Arnaud is completely drunk. Il imagine le pire — “He imagines the worst”. They separate to check all the streets: Hugo heads back south, Léo heads toward the station and Mathieu looks around le parc royal — Brussels Park, which is alongside the Royal Palace (hence the name). Hugo walks alone for a minute and suddenly he hears someone shouting in English. It’s Arnaud!

Hugo: Mais c’est pas possible ! Arnaud est devant l’ambassade américaine et il crie des insultes en anglais. J’essaye de le calmer mais il continue de crier. Et maintenant, il veut escalader la grille. Il est devenu fou ! Alors j’appelle Léo et Mathieu pour les prévenir.

Très vite, Mathieu arrive et il appelle Madison pour calmer Arnaud. Mais Madison ne répond pas…

Au même moment, une alarme retentit. Je n’y crois pas : Arnaud est en train d’escalader la grille de l’ambassade !!!

Sam: So this is where things get really wild. Hugo says it can’t be possible — Arnaud is in front of the American embassy shouting insults in English! Oh boy… Hugo tries to calm him down but he continues to shout and now, says Hugo, he wants to scale the fence. “He’s gone mad!” Il est devenu fou ! So Hugo calls the others to warn them — pour les prévenir.

Very quickly Mathieu arrives and he tries calling Madison to get her to calm Arnaud down. But Madison doesn’t answer… and at the same moment, une alarme retentit — an alarm goes off. “I don’t believe it”, exclaims Hugo: “Arnaud is scaling the embassy fence!”

Hugo: On lui crie de revenir… mais il continue d’escalader. Là, deux gardes arrivent et le plaquent au sol.

Mathieu explique la situation au service de sécurité mais Arnaud est arrêté. Et il passe la nuit au commissariat.

Le matin, heureusement, Arnaud est libéré, il n’y a pas de plainte contre lui… Mais, la sanction est lourde : il n'a plus jamais le droit d’entrer sur le territoire américain ! C’est beaucoup pour un chagrin d’amour et quelques bières !

Sam: The guys shout: Arnaud, reviens ! — “Arnaud, come back!” But he continues climbing. At this point, two guards arrive and tackle him to the ground. Mathieu explains the situation to the security services but Arnaud is arrested and he spends the night at the police station — au commissariat.

In the morning, thankfully, Arnaud is freed with no charges — pas de plainte … but the punishment is hefty: He can never again enter American territory! Which, if you think about it, is rather a lot for un chagrin d’amour — that is, “a broken heart” and a few beers.

So, while listening to Hugo’s story, you may or may not have noticed that he combined several verbs with prepositions that were then followed by another, infinitive verb, such as:
commencer à, meaning “to begin to do something”, such as… Mathieu commence à s’inquiéter — “Mathieu starts to worry.”

Then we had:
continuer de, meaning “to continue to do something”.
Il continue de crier — “He continues to shout”.
We also have:
décider de, meaning “to decide to do something”, and lastly:
essayer de, meaning “to try to do something”.

Now if all of those prepositions leave your head spinning, don’t forget that you can replay each episode as many times as you like and follow along with the synchronized transcript. You’ll find you understand more of what’s being said each time and, if you’re feeling confident, you can also listen without my commentary.

You can also learn more about French verb phrases with prepositions in our Babbel courses, of course!

That’s it for today, we’d love to hear your feedback, which you can send us via the survey you’ll find in the episode description.

Thanks for listening and see you for the next episode of French en route…
Au revoir !