Dan and Simon Dube are a competing duo who just can’t stop winning in the French reality TV show ‘A Fond De Train.’ Since their debut on the show in the Toronto challenge, the father-son team has moved on to Ottawa and this Saturday, are now moving on to Quebec City, as one of the final cities to compete in the TV show on Unis TV.
In the cross-country competition, two duos compete starting in Vancouver and ending in Halifax with many stops in between. Dube and his son landed their shot to compete, jumping on the train in Sudbury facing their first of potentially many challenges. The catch: the winners get back on the train to face a new duo, while the losers go back home.
Now, with two wins under their belts, Dan and Simon’s competition in Quebec will be airing this Saturday against a team Dube said was a lot more challenging.
“There is always the thought of maybe we won’t win and the thought was we’re going there to win and not just compete,” he said. “I’ve seen some teams say they were here for the fun of it and the competition, but the team we faced in Quebec was a lot more competitive.”
And although it’s winter now, Dan and Simon filmed the competition during last summer, which meant by the time they competed in Quebec, temperatures were heating up past 30 degrees, plus humidity as they ran across the bustling city all day.
“We were confident, but I won't say overconfident,” he said about going into their third round of competition after their two wins. “Every destination, we did some studying of different aspects of each city. We had a bit of time to walk around [Quebec], a wonderful city, it has the European feel to it and we did a bit of exploring and tourism.”
The winner of Quebec would go on to Moncton, New Brunswick and then to Halifax, the final destination of the TV show. Dube said they put pressure on themselves to go as far as possible as they wanted to make it to the end.
An aspect of competing on a French show gave Dan and his son the opportunity to meet other French families from across the country and get a chance to share in a culture that can be a little overshadowed, particularly for Ontarians.
“Meeting other French people in Ontario was great,” Dube said. “At the Toronto destination, the father was in the military based in Edmonton, so we got to meet people who are French, living across the country. It was very enlightening not only for myself but for my son.”
Dube said it was very important, especially for his son to get that kind of cultural exposure.
“Kids and teenagers don’t realize sometimes until they get out of the family circle, that keeping your heritage and language is very important so having those experiences and contacts with people elsewhere, other people are able to do it also.”
The next stop on their journey, Ottawa will be airing this Saturday morning on Unis TV—Cogeco 530/560, Bell Fibe 141/1141, Bell Satellite et Telus 150, Shaw et Shaw Direct 741—for those with French-language packages, as well as on their website Saturday afternoon for a week afterward.
So make sure to tune in to see how far Dan Dube and his son Simon make it on the cross-country ride.
