Social convention says that it is pretentious for a native English speaker to sprinkle his conversation with "the French".
For example, most people hate it when someone works such phrases as a bientot or je ne sais quoi into a sentence. And who doesn't cringe when they hear a person actually pronounce papier mache correctly?
So that begs the question, how will residents of L'Hermitage en Ville refer to their new building? Will they say things like, "we hope you'll join us at our place for some wine and cheese - we live at [insert pause for dramatic effect]...l'Hermitage en Ville".
Or will people sheepishly start calling it "the hermitage", as in - "come by my place for beers on Friday night. I live at the [clear throat, mumble]...hermitage. Maybe later we can hit the Cecil."
With unit prices ranging from $360,000 to over $1.5 million, our guess is that there will probably be a bit of both.
Regardless of what the occupants wind up calling their new building, everyone else may be interested to know that it will be 32 storeys (285 ft) high and have 203 apartment units. Located at the corner of Robson and Richards, it's scheduled for completion in 2006.
Taking one more swing at this pinata - in reference to the building's location, its marketers are quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying, "It's urban; it's really urban."
Translation: It's a long walk to get to a seawall, whichever way you go. Building views for everyone!
German, Italian ambience the newest 'fins' (pdf link) [Vancouver Sun]
