Frenchy Friday : 2 Extra Letters Changes Everything

A La MOM BEST OF - Originally posted 19 October 2010

How do the French celebrate Halloween? 

With Jack Off Lanternes.

Quick! Get La Ferme de Gally a native English speaking intern to review their point-of-sales materials. This one's a jewel - and it's already been sent to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, by the way.

Say it with me now, "Oh là là!"

La Mom thought about translating this to the Gally Farm manager. Then I reconsidered as I watched several American families pass by the signs, giggling and pointing.

So fellow Anglophone expats - this will be our little secret, right? Let's let the Frenchies think they have English Halloween vocabulary mastered.

Two extra letters changes everything, doesn't it?

Bonne Fête de Halloween!

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Visiting Paris and need a hotel? Here are four Paris Hotels girls go nuts over:

A hotel’s more than just a place to crash, especially in Paris. Below, are four fun girlie hotels this city has to offer: hotels that are quirky, infamous or sexy – but above all have their own sense of style.

The kind of place you can’t wait to get back to after a day exploring la belle Paris. The kind of place you’ll go nuts over…

1. The Sex and the City one: Plaza  Athenee

Plaza Athenee’s been touched by two sprinkles of PR fairy dust in the past decade. For starters, super-chef Alain Ducasse was drafted in in 2000 to oversee all kitchen operations, so you’re sure to have an amazing meal here – whether you’re stopping in the three Michelin-star restaurant or munching down a breakfast pain au chocolat.

But the biggest deal here is Carrie. Plaza Athenee’s Eiffel Tower Suite featured as Ms. Bradshaw’s Paris abode in the final two episodes of Sex and the City, sealing its fate forever alongside macarons and Louboutins as the ultimate girlie treat in Paris.

2. The literary one: L’hotel

L’hotel’s most famous for being the place Oscar Wilde died. It makes sense, then, that the hotel’s look and feel today translates into something traditional yet witty and ineffably stylish, rather like the great man himself.

The (after all, rather grim) fact of the playwright’s death isn’t its only USP, though: your room leads off from a beautiful stone spiral staircase, and the imaginatively-named Le Restaurant serves trendy Michelin-starred dishes and even better cocktails.

3. The quirky one: Hotel du Petit  Moulin

An eccentric one, this. If it were a character from Friends, it would be Phoebe – dressed in Christian Lacroix. Design at Hotel du Petit Moulin was overseen by Lacroix, making-over Paris’s oldest boulangerie into an assortment of 17 wildly different rooms.  

Colours, textures and patterns clash gleefully on every surface (the walls in rooms 202, 204 and 205 even feature blown-up doodles from Lacroix’s sketch book), bathrooms house kitschy heart-shaped mirrors and tech goodies come in the form of Wi-Fi and flat screens. There’s a private bar (tres exclusive, darling!) but staying in a fashion hotel will probably give you the urge, via osmosis, to shop. No worries: nearby rue Charlot has a wealth of boutiques to choose from.

4. The budget one: Hotel Taylor

The above options are fabulous, yes, but these levels of fabulosity come with a price-tag. Not so Hotel Taylor, which squeezes beautiful décor and a whole lot of boutiquey charm under far less eye-watering room rates (starting at EUR 86 a night). Furniture is a mix of the curly-footed, antique variety and the clean and minimal, while goodies like flat screen TVs, Wi-Fi and breakfast in bed keep your stay feeling sweet.  

You’re located a stiletto’s throw from the vintage alley-shopping and late-night bar-hopping of the Marais, and Canal St. Martin is also close by – perfect for Sunday strolls.  

For more information, check out AnyTrip.com, the budget travel specialists. If you want to visit Paris yourself, check out AnyTrip’s selection of cheap hotels in Paris or like them on Facebook.