I talk to the two Montreal-area teams from The Amazing Race Canada 2

Following seven episodes of The Amazing Race Canada on CTV, one thing is abundantly clear. The two teams from the Montreal area do not like each other. When I interviewed Alain Chanoine and Audrey Tousignant-Maurice, a couple who live on the South Shore and twin brothers  Pierre and Michel Forget, I could tell immediately that the rivalry being shown on television is not just for the cameras.

Audrey was somewhat diplomatic: “It is not that we do not like them. We just play the game differently.”

Alain and Audrey read a clue in a scene from the next episode in Paris.

As for Alain, he notes: “Just wait until you see our interaction in the next episode!”

Pierre and Michel tell the story this way. “The first when we met and knew we were all from Montreal we asked if we could work together,” remarked Michel. “Well they never answered us. After all of their alliances collapsed they came back and said ‘do you remember your question when we first met? I said to Audrey, ‘but you never answered us.’ This is all part of the game. They will never be invited to our house for dinner.”

Pierre and Michel.

Following last week’s  second non-elimination leg of the season in Normandy, all six teams will get to see more of France and race to Paris in next week’s episode airing Tuesday, Aug. 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO. As revealed at the end of the last broadcast, Ryan and Rob were saved from elimination at the Pit Stop on the sands of Juno Beach, after countless wrong turns in the rolling countryside and small towns of Normandy.  On Juno Beach, Olympic hockey players Natalie and Meaghan reclaimed their spot atop the podium, winning their fifth leg after starting in fifth place at the Pit Start in Winnipeg.

Previews for the Paris episode show us that tempers will begin to really boil. “This is definitely my favorite episode,” is all Audrey will say, naturally sworn to secrecy.

Alain is an actor and stuntman while Audrey is a real estate broker for ReMax Action. The couple own a triplex in Boucherville. Audrey was raised in LaSalle and sells properties all over the island of Montreal. They have been together for two years. Since the show debuted, they have been gathering on Tuesday nights with friends and family at the Rack'N'Roll Billard Bar (http://www.racknroll.com) on the South Shore to watch the episodes live. Last week  Brett Burstein and Holly Agostino, the Montreal Children’s Hospital physicians who were in last year’s show, were special guests.

The Forget brothers were delivered as a team 42 years ago and have since shared a passion for competition, sport, and life in general. Before becoming dedicated to their current roles with the family meatpacking plant in North Shore Terrebonne, the twins competed in high-level freestyle skiing. Michel gave up his dream of being a competitive skier so that Pierre could compete full time, as their family could not afford for both boys to be heavily involved in the sport. Pierre went on to become a member of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association team and won the International Ski Federation (FIS) Moguls World Cup title in 1994.
  

Having just been to Paris myself, I am really looking forward to the next episode. For the competitors though, this experience was hardly a holiday. “In terms of any place we go, it is like seeing a country in fast forward,” says Alain. “We are running with backpacks,  jumping over cars. ‘Oh there is the Eiffel Tower,’ I will say to myself.

Pierre and Michel had a really interesting experience in Paris, one which is unlikely to be seen on Tuesday.  Since the show was filmed in May, contestants were not allowed to tell anyone – not even family members – where they were and what they were doing. “I asked one of the producers, what would happen if we saw someone we knew?” Pierre said. “He commented that would never happen. Well, while on a small street in Paris Michel and I heard someone call out our names. Sure enough it was someone we knew. We asked him to please not broadcast this on social media or tell anyone and took a selfie with him. He was good to his word.”

Pierre also wanted to point out how he and his brother are not necessarily portrayed fairly in the episode in Macau where mother and son  Nicole and Cormac accused them of trying to steal their cab. “I want to make it clear,” said Pierre. “We were the first in line. We decided to be polite and classy and just go to the end of the line.”

One last thing. I asked the two teams whether they are getting recognized on the streets because of the national TV coverage. It seems they are flying very much under the radar. “Not much,” said Alain

Added Michel: “Well we live in a francophone area, so not too many people have stopped us either.”