Haha. I was told Canadian French sounds weird to the French, too, so that couldn't have helped! The metro mix-up sounds frightening. That was amazing of the vendor to help!
The lades in the random pastry shop were hilarious. I didn't speak French, and none of them spoke English or Spanish. I had asked how to get to Notre Damme. They didn't really know how to get there on foot, either, and were discussing it. Then one of them said (in French) "I'm a lady," looked at one of the others and said "you're a lady," shrugged and said what I can only guess is "which lady are you looking for?" At least, that was what I understood of it. I understood just enough! They were awesome :-)