by kilkrazy June 27, 2005
A Love Hotel /ləv/ /hōˈte/) is a short-stay, day-use only hotel with tariffs extending from 30 minutes to several hours. Originally used by Japanese married couples due to a lack of space in Japanese homes, love hotels are now often frequented by young couples who still live with their parents. In the French context they provide a convenient (indeed awesome!) location for a common French practise, the “cinq à sept” (literally, "five to seven", pronounced "sank-ah-set"). The phrase is used in France as a synecdoche for a visit to one's mistress. The rooms of love hotels, usually themed, include original decoration to meet all customers' fantasies (doctor’s office, bondage, mirrors, etc). The Love Hotel in Paris is located in Europe’s biggest sex shop. It is safe haven for low budget adulterers who have nowhere else to go for their cinq à sept. It is conveniently located in the middle of the city, easily accessible with public transport. One should be mentally prepared to walk into the sex shop by broad daylight, but when you’ve tried the office showers and the corner of the street in the middle of November, and have been busted a couple of times, you won’t care anymore, as long as you can get a private room and any kind of furniture to have sex on. It has a wide range of rooms with different themes, but the best ones are the African and Oriental rooms. It’s the best place to be in Paris, much better than the Eiffel Tower.
With Jean we needed a not too expensive place to fuck each other’s brains out, so we went to the love hotel after work between five and seven, then we ate cheese and drank wine before going home to our families.
by Jacques French June 4, 2013