It’s funny, how sometimes life seems to take its time until the right moment. When I was in my early 20s I had gone to France in order to learn French since it had been required as part of my studies and being (Austrian-) Canadian, I figured I should be speaking it anyway. During the first year and a half I would teach English at the Wall Street Institute of English on Avenue Victor Hugo, just off Champs Elysees and go to French lessons for 2 hours 3 times a week in the evening. I did this until I felt that I had a good enough grasp on the French language to begin working in it (well, that and teaching English had been becoming increasingly easy).
Because I had studied hotel and tourism management I decided that I wanted to return to that in order to make use of my studies, try to build a career and improve my french (3 birds with one stone kind of thing). It was a tough transition but after a lot of looking around I was finally able to secure myself a job.
Since it was my first time work in in French; however, I was very careful. Too careful. The thing is my French was good enough to understand almost everything (with exception of some uncommon words like slang or expressions) but I was scared of and didn’t want to make mistakes, which is why I limited myself in communicating in French. Now, anyone that has experience learning or teaching a language will know that there is a barrier that you must overcome in order to truly learn a language successfully. It’s connected to your confidence. People learning languages often don’t have confidence enough in themselves or their skills to make use of them, which creates a great limitation and is the cause of a great setback which will result in you taking much longer to learn a language than it could if only you took that crucial step of just doing it. Imagine it like being on a cliff, that one step is the most difficult one to take, but once it has been taken everything else is free falling and just starts to go along (a go with the flow kind of thing). You have to be a little selfish when it comes to learning a language and just use it, even if it’s a little annoying in the beginning. When I begun to understand things in French, although I could have responded using the same language, I didn’t. I didn’t want to be annoying (I could see them struggling to catch my words by the way their faces would change and became all serious as they concentrated and eyes narrowed lol) and found my accent very strong and compared to the lovely melodious way that words and phrases escaped the mouths of my french colleagues I felt like I, with my hard North American English accent cut into the French words like a butcher. Seriously, I felt like I was butchering the beautiful melody of the French language.
Needless to say the first job didn’t work out because they were under the impression that my language skills weren’t good enough (little did they know that actually meanwhile I was understanding almost every word they were saying but just lacked the confidence to try it myself because I was too scared to make mistakes). This obviously shattered me. I wasn’t used to and hated failure (still do…). Tried to find another similar job (because I was not willing to give up), which took a long time. Those of you that have been in the whole searching for the right job experience will know that the right job seems to take forever to come (well, I knew what I was looking for and wouldn’t settle for less). After about 3 months and my self-esteem being about as low as it ever had been at the time I decided that perhaps it wasn’t my destiny to work in a French hotel and become fluent and decided to go home. I hadn’t yet handed in my notice but was going to go home for a visit first to try and figure out what my next move would be. I was packing one morning, and I remember this well, when my phone rang. “Bonjour Mmle De-Schuster, etes vous toujours a la recherche d’un emploi?” I remember my silly response as well (long pause *cogs in brain are turning* do I really want to give it another shot and change my plans again?) “Oui… (pause) oui oui” and voila, I was invited to an interview. Honestly, at this point I had gone through so much that I didn’t even know what I wanted anymore and did something I normally never do… I went to the interview dressed professionally, but with my hair down. The hotel was amazing and the interview was very pleasant and went well, my Boss was an amazing woman who later became someone I very much looked up to (like a role model) and still admire today.
Two weeks after starting another place I had applied at called to offer me a job (a lovely French castle hotel located only 15mins from where I was living. that too, would have been ideal). I thanked them but told them that I had been waiting 3 months for their response (that’s how long ago the interview was) and unfortunately already had already accepted something else in the meantime. I stayed in France and at the Hotel Lutetia for a little over 2 years, where I became fluent in the French language. If it hadn’t been for that turn of events I probably still wouldn’t be speaking French. And thanks to that I was able to remain there, befriend many wonderful people, learn about and understand their culture and so many other things. To appreciate the weekend, food, time to yourself (the expression metro dodo boullot – subway sleep work – is a very common one to describe the life in Paris and rightfully so. They are very dedicated, work very hard and then enjoy the time they have to themselves, weekends in the countryside or at the beach in Deauville in the summer). Obviously by this post you will understand why I love the Lutetia. Not only because it is beautiful, elegant and, unlike most of the other luxury hotels in Paris, truly Parisienne, but because it opened so many doors to me. The colleagues I worked with there were so much fun that I remember eagerly going over the rota each week in anticipation of who I would be working with.
I remember the first time I was alone at reception with the phone and I would stare at it with the thoughts in my head: “please don’t ring please don’t ring please don’t r…” *ring* “Bonjour l’hotel Lutetia Paris, Birgit en ligne, puis-je vous aider?” (heartbeat, able to help them? yes, disaster evaded.) obviously my French hadn’t yet reached its peak at the time haha… while working there my confidence rose and I one day, while thinking of my students and their difficulties in the beginning, suddenly understood and realized that it was time to speak French. That I had to become a little selfish when speaking in order to learn, that if I didn’t I would never get into the habit, finally took the decision to just do it and began to respond in French. Well that is my story and why those of you that know me will understand why I love Paris, France, to speak French and the Lutetia so much ^_^
If you would like to arrange a visit to Paris and experience the Lutetia just contact me and I’ll be happy to make the necessary arrangements.
Interesting facts about the Hotel Lutetia:
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The hotel was founded by the Bon Marche store, which is located opposite of the Lutetia, just beyond the Boucicaut Square (the idea was to provide luxury accomodation to those travelling to Paris to shop at the Bon Marche)
Famous people who have stayed at the Lutetia (Wikipedia): Pablo Picasso, Charles de Gaulle, Marianne Oswald, Andre Gide, Peggy Guggenheim, Josephine Baker
The interior redesign (Art Deco) of the famous bar was overlooked and uniforms of (Front Office) staff were all designed by Sonia Rykiel, who in the 80’s ran a boutique in the hotel.
The suite Arman is fully furnished with furniture and artifacts of the Designer Arman, who frequently would stay at the Lutetia.
The sister hotel of the Lutetia is Hotel de Crillion and used to be Hotel Ambassador as well.
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