At the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in the Gaspésie-Îles-de la-Madeleine, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, lies the little city of Gaspé. To call it a city seems strange, but in a 2011 census it reportedly had a population of around 15,000 people. To believe that one might find adventure here would be stretching it at best. But one hot August day, during a stop-over of several hours while on a cruise that would take us up the St. Lawrence River to Montréal, that is exactly what we encountered.
Gaspé and the Crème Glacée Float
As we all know, Canada is for the most part bilingual. Most residents in the major cities of Canada speak English and French. It is only in certain sections where you may encounter French speaking citizens who don’t speak English.
According to the 2011 census, 87.21% of Gaspé citizens speak French, while only 1.13% are bilingual (French and English). Our cruise group was English speaking. You can already see the problem, and adventure, coming up.
We had been on a walking tour of Gaspé for several hours when a member of our party said, “What I wouldn’t give for an ice cream float right now.” We were all so hot and thirsty that we started to look for a place where we could sit down and rest for a while. Of course by now, nothing would quench our thirst but a nice cold ice cream float.
The History of Ice Cream Floats
The ice cream float, or ice cream soda, originated at the Philadelphia Exposition in October 1874. A pharmacist by the name of Robert M. Green is credited with inventing the popular ice cream soda. An article entitled, Ice Cream Float, states:
As with most stories, there are multiple variations. One version says that the fountain ran out of fresh cream. As there was no cream in the vicinity, Mr. Green got vanilla ice cream from a nearby vendor. He planned to let it melt and use it as cream, but was so busy that instead he added a frozen spoonful directly to the cream soda. In another version, he ran out of ice and used the ice cream to cool the drink. However, in his own published account, (in Soda Fountain magazine in 1910), he recounted that while operating a soda fountain at the Franklin Institute’s sesquicentennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1874, he wanted to create something that would attract customers away from another competitor. During some deliberate experimenting, he added ice cream to the soda water.
Unbeknown to us, we were about to do the same thing.
An Ice Cream Float Was Not Known In Gaspé
Here we were, all set for our nice, refreshing ice cream float; but we spoke English, and they spoke French – only French.
In our group was an older woman who had studied French for four years in high school; but she had forgotten everything she ever learned. I had studied French in college, and I also sang in French. I became the one who had to try to communicate with our waitress.
After several failed attempts, I finally asked for “crème glacée avec Coca Cola” for everyone. Our waitress, and the rest of the café staff who had been trying to help, looked at me as if I were nuts, but then, I was American after all.
When the waitress returned with our plates of vanilla ice cream and glasses of Coca Cola (and a puzzled look on her face) the staff gathered around the table and watched in awe as we each fixed our own ice cream floats.
I haven’t been back to Gaspé since that time, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that they now have that “crazy American drink” on their menus in Gaspé. If they do, you know who started it.
