Sometimes not knowing your faux amis can cause real problems. A British tourist found this out the hard way when she decided to use the restroom at a Hôtel de ville before heading to the check-in desk. Unfortunately, while hôtel usually does mean "hotel," a hôtel de ville is a special case - it refers to a town hall or city hall.* If she'd tried to check in right away, there would have been no problem, but as it happened, no one knew she was there, and while she was occupied in the restroom, the fonctionnaires locked up and left for the night. The woman ending up sleeping not in the nice comfy bed she'd imagined, but on a chair in the lobby. To make matters worse, it was Friday night, and she might have been stuck there until the town hall reopened again on Monday if not for a passerby spotting the note she'd taped to the glass door on Saturday morning: "Je suis fermer ici. Est ce possible moi la porte ouvrir?"**
Source: BBC - UK tourist trapped in French hall
Lessons: French travel vocabulary
*And there are a few others:
Source: BBC - UK tourist trapped in French hall
Lessons: French travel vocabulary
*And there are a few others:
- hôtel des impôts - tax office
- hôtel de la Monnaie - the Mint
- hôtel particulier - town house, mansion
- hôtel de police - police station
- hôtel des ventes - salesroom
Comments
hotel des impots:correctand does exist
hotel de la monnaie ?? no such thing, but there is “tresor public”
As for hotel de police ? never seen one, but more like “gendarmerie” without any reference to hotel.
I live in “la belle France” and have never seen nor hotel de la monaie nor hotel de police.
If you do a search for hôtel de police and hôtel de la monnaie trésor, you’ll see plenty of examples.
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
Et elle est partie sans payer la note! bravo!
Hard to imagine someone would give some vocabu;aru and have the words NOT EXIST. Perhaps not in vogue in some parts, but certainly existing.
As has been said in the past, if there is an English-French “bible” for dicos, Collins-Robert is it. Here’s what my 2009 electronic version has to say:
mots composés
hôtel des impôts :tax office
hôtel meublé : (cheap) residential hotel
l’hôtel de la Monnaie :» the Mint
hôtel particulier :town house, (private) mansion
hôtel de passe :hotel used by prostitutes
hôtel de police :police station
hôtel de tourisme :tourist hotel
hôtel des ventes :saleroom, salesroom US
hôtel de ville :town hall
All there.
John@
Hi Again
Wondering what I might right as a tourist locked in a building with the wekend looming. I figure it depends on my state of composure:
If I was:
Fluster I might write: HELP
a little more composed I might scibble: AU SECOURS
In real good form you could see: Je suis attrappé, aide-moi svp ouvrir las porte.
None of which – I’m sure – are grammatically correct but, like the tourist’s, should get the idea across clearly enough.
John@
@ JFMallon
“Je suis attrapée”, dans le cas présent, ne veut rien dire
La forme la plus correcte aurait été: “Je suis enfermée ici. Est-ce possible de m’ouvrir la porte ?” (ou “Est-il possible de m’ouvrir la porte ?”)
I love how politely she asked for help