Quickly though, Alain and Audrey became known as the Lovebirds, a moniker that became further entrenched when following the leg in Paris, Alain went down on one knee, professed his undying love for Audrey and proposed marriage. It was a very touching moment, one of the highlights of the season, especially since Audrey quickly agreed and in an instant their team description changed from Dating to Engaged.
And while we both initially picked this team as one of the possible Final 3 competitors, they came to the end of the line in the PEI leg. So we got to talk to Alain and Audrey and had many hard hitting questions, especially related to Alain's hiding of the ring and the lengths he went to ensure he wouldn't lose it. Also, some other stuff about U-Turns and another Francophone team.
G & W - Okay, our first question is a two-parter directed at Alain: where did you hide the ring? And did you worry about losing it and/or Audrey accidentally finding it?
Alain - Yes, both. I hid it at the bottom of my bag in pants and prayed she wouldn't go through it and find it. Every time we would get in a cab, like we were in the Fast Forward in Winnipeg, I would write down the cab number, his name and everything. She thought I was paranoid but...
Audrey - I was like "Baby, it's only stuff". I didn't know the ring was in there.
Alain - So fortunately, everything went well.
G & W - Paris was an obvious choice to pop the question, but you had no idea you were going to Paris so was there another time you thought to do this.
Alain - I was waiting for the right time. I didn't feel it was the right time before Paris. When I heard Paris I thought this was a no-brainer, but I didn't know how the day was going to go, it go have gone in a thousand different ways. I almost did it Hong Kong at the Buddha, we had kind of a break in the race, it would have been nice, but looking back, I did right and picked the perfect location.
G & W - Still in Paris, after you made the deal with the Forget Twins, were you actually surprised that they U-Turned you since they did have a reputation of playing strategic?
Alain - I was not surprised at all. It was not like I trusted them. Although I think Audrey was surprised.
Audrey - I was surprised and on top of that, it was more surprising that they actually told us they wouldn't. I would have gone a different way saying "We're not sure yet" and not give a straight answer.
Alain - So we were surprised that they were willing to lie on TV and prove that they...
Audrey - It's just not me. So I would have never said "Yes, I won't U-Turn you" and then do it five minutes after. And they had other teams to choose from. So it's fine, like we said before, it's a game and U-Turning is legal so at the end of the day, they did what they thought was good for them and that's it.
G & W - Did this race test your relationship more than travelling in general.
Audrey - We both travelled quite a bit separately but we've only done a one time all-inclusive together. But we actually did renovations before the show so I think if you can survive renovations as a couple, you are fine.
Alain - I actually don't agree with the fact that if you survive a vacation or travel together your relationship will survive because it's not true. When you travel, that's when things are great, that's when you're away from your problems, away from family, away from regular life. Every time I went on vacation with anybody, that's when everything goes well. The real test is renovations, the real test is real life.
G & W - Did you ask Audrey to switch positions in harness racing?
Audrey - I actually did it a little bit...
Alain - She did about 10 meters. (Both laugh).
Audrey - I did 20. I gave everything I had and then he jumped back in.
G & W - Alain, what was the biggest challenge of the Roadblock at Province House?
Alain - I kept saying Tapper instead of Tupper but you know, it's gets a little frustrating because all of the French names, nobody got them right, but me. But with me as a French Canadian and Tapper vs Tupper, I had to stay there forever. I should have of gotten out there first.
Audrey - Meaghan had the same problem, too.
Alain - Meaghan had the same problem...but it's an English show so I'm not going to lose sleep about it, but it was frustrating, I'm French, you understand.
G & W - Being Francophone in a race with other teams that didn't speak French, did that give you an advantage, maybe allowing you to speak privately to each other?
Alain - We did and it sure helped. But the place it helped the most was in Paris because Mickey and Pete got lost, a lot other people were slowed down in the tasks because of communication, they couldn't communicate with the taxi very well. And whenever we weren't sure where we were going with a taxi, we would tell them to call the dispatcher, which is not an easy thing to say in a language when you don't speak it. So it helped us a couple of times.
G & W - Although it wasn't shown on the race, we've heard online that you guys were very strategic, planning things, forming alliances, was that true?
Audrey - Actually, I don't think we could call it an alliance but more of we got along with other teams really, really well and if you could help them a little, we would.
Alain - Ryan and Rob, Nicole and Cormac, Rex and Bob... but alliance, to join to get and get back at another team. People have accused us of that but it's not on the show not only because they didn't put it in because it didn't happen.
G & W - But you did play a strategic game, did you not?
Audrey - Absolutely. I remember when the Twins got the Express Pass, we talked about making sure they used it as fast as they can so we kind of discussed that with other teams. But once it was done, we were all back on even ground so nothing against them. I know they said that.
Alain - They accused us of lying (draws out word). Not once did we lie. It was a game, we played it honestly and anything that needed to be said was said. We never lied...
Audrey - And if we're going to talk about a strategic move, we actually wanted the Twins in the Top 3 with us. Because one of them told me they only ever watched six episodes so that is so awesome, they probably didn't know about the last mental challenge on the last episode. So we're all there, taking notes and everything. And if they are in the finals with us, we are going to so kill them at the mental challenge. So if you're talking about a strategic move, that was one of ours.
G & W - Would you do the race again?
Audrey - Definitely. In this race we were the dating couple, then the engaged couple. Then they would change our title to married couple. Then the next one after that, we could be married parents and then later, later on, as grandparents.
G & W - Would you change the way you raced?
Alain - Keep calm, have more fun, relax, not take it so seriously. We would have done a lot better if we just relaxed more.
Audrey - And our maps skills...
Alain - Yes, our map reading skills, I would definitely improve that.
Audrey - We really too much on our GPS all the time. But when we went on the race, we should have practised a little bit before.
G & W - Except for the engagement, did the race change your life in anyway, make you make differences in how you live your life?
Audrey - I think the only difference it made for me, I always wanted to do something really big, like have a big adventure with Alain before we got married and had kids. So now I feel that after this amazing experience, we are ready to really settle down, get married and have kids and everything. That's what Amazing Race brought us.
Alain - And for me, the race is just a high stress situation all the time and I learned that in stressful situations to be calmer, that way I can get more out of my girlfriend in any situation is to stay calm and not force anything up on her.
G & W - When is the wedding?
Audrey - We're looking at April 2015. I'm just kind of starting it, it's quite complicated cause I'm trying to do a destination wedding.
Alain - She'll let me know what we decide and we'll agree. (Both laugh).