LEWISTON – By the middle of the afternoon, the two women had it figured out. If they balanced their umbrellas across their legs, it would protect them from the splash of passing cars. Sneakers were out; Bean boots were in.

By suppertime, they were just wet and cold rather than downright miserable.

The women are Flo Roberts and Georgette Miller, and they had door duty for the first day of the Festival FrancoFun. When they got there at 6:30 a.m., they didn’t even have a tent to sit under. That was an issue because all day long, the rain kept coming in sheets.

“When the cars go by, they splash us,” Roberts said.

The women were stationed on the Oxford Street side of the Franco-American Heritage Center, and they were remarkably chipper for a pair who have been sitting in the rain all day. That’s because the people they greeted on the way to the fest tended to be happy, in spite of the punishing weather.

“They don’t like the rain,” Roberts said. “But they’re happy to be here.”

Of course they are. For years, the Franco Fest in its various forms has been a big draw for people of French descent and others. There’s familiar food, French entertainment and camaraderie to no end.

For those nostalgic for the French way of life, this is the place to be.

“You can’t just say, I’m in the mood for French today,” Miller said. “You can’t find it just anywhere. Here, you have to wait for this time of year.”

Beyond the tent and the smiling wet faces of the greeters, guests entered a door and went into the former St. Mary’s Church. There was the culture they came for.

Foremost, the food. On a wall above the kitchen alcove in Heritage Hall were nine different menus written in humble magic marker. There, a wet and shivering soul could order anything from traditional bacon and eggs to crepes, tourtiere pie, salmon pie, Italian sausage or any imaginable combination thereof.

Upstairs, from the nave, the jaunty tones of The Trio were replaced in the late afternoon by the softer sounds of Melanie Saucier performing, appropriately, “The French Song.”

You could hear the music faintly in the hallways of the spacious building. Outside, no such luck.

“It would be nice if we had some music out here,” said Roberts, entertained only by the music of passing traffic and rain falling on the tent above her.

The festival continues all weekend at the corner of Oxford and Cedar streets. The weather forecast calls for rain all three days, but there was not much concern at the center. They were not out in Kennedy Park like recent years or roaming the grounds at the Colisee, after all.

“It’s a nice festival,” Miller said.

She rubbed her hands together and waited to greet the next visitor.