It is now time for me to make room reservations in Leper as part of our July trip. I am torn between the Novotel Ieper Centrum and the Albion Hotel. They both have rooms and the prices are about the same. We want to be in town.

Has anyone stayed in either one recently. I know Novotel is a chain (we have stayed in some several years ago), but it has AC and we will be there July 4. On the other hand Albion sounds nice and offers a breakfast, but no AC. We will be stopping there on the way from Bruge to Bayeau. My husband wants to see the Last Post.

Might you possibly mean Ypres?

Yes I do. The town's name is apparently spelled both ways. The information from the Hotel spells it Ieper. The Michelin map of France has Ieper with(Ypres) in small print under it.

You might have more luck reposting with Ypres in the title - that's likely to be much more widely recognised (especially by people with hotel recommendations), whatever the local politics insists on.

And it might help to post it as a topic on Belgium rather than France.

While I did know that Leper is Ypres, I must say that when I clicked on this thread I was half expecting to read someting about a sanitorium.

Wasn't there a spirited debate here a while ago about which spelling was correct: Brugge or Bruges?

Anselm

Must they be clean, or unclean?

When my family lived in Panama right after the Korean War, my mother would take me with her once a month to deliver birthday cakes and donated clothing/money/household goods to one of the leper colonies in the area.

Though I was pretty young at the time, the memories of those folks and our visits are still very vivid.

We've stayed several times at the Ariane in Ypres (Ieper) . The rooms are large and very clean , excellent breakfast and a really good restuarant for an evening meal. Several of the small English WW1 battlefield tour groups use it as a base, and there is lots of good conversation in the bar in the evening. In fact we were invited to go on a special private visit to St Georges chapel with a group one evening.

It is in a quiet location, a 5 minute walk to the center.

http://www.ariane.be

Just wait for a post from the Vlaams Blok chastising those English speakers who dare to use Ypres and Bruges.

I won't object to their using "Londen" among themselves...

Or, more appositely, "Parijs".

Nee, nee, it's Vlaams Belang now.

http://www.flemishrepublic.org/

Well, you can call it as you wish but the only official name is Ieper since it's a Flemish town. So is Brugge.

I think the point is that the Ypres spelling is the one more likely to be widely recognized. Using Leper is like using Mockva for Moscow--fine for people who recognize the Russian transliteration, but not so fine for those who don't.

Underhill, FYI it's Ieper with an i, not Leper.

I was introduced to Fodors(Asia Board) 18 months ago when I was planning two trips. I can't say enough good things about all the great insight I got from replies to my many posts on that board. The help from the board really made a difference in the trip, as compared to our earlier trips to Europe just using the printed guide books etc.

I think everyone would agree that first hand and personal information is great when planning a trip to an unfamilar place. I have recieved some great information from post on this trip from several people on this board. Thank you very much. This is what helps make a neat trip.

However, it is very disappointing to see replies and then find out it is just a fuss over spelling(this time) or Hotel 4 stars or 5 stars in the past. I agree, I should have used Beglium, but had just been reading up dated posts about Normandy and Paris where we will spend most of our trip and forgot to change that part. My hotel confrimation from the Die Swaene in Bruge, Brugge or Bruges (I have seen it all spellings) spells it "Bruges". So I really am not sure of the correct one.

I do know form our driving trips in Europe over the years that spelling of cities is different from maps used in the US, but I expect it to be- they are in English not French or German. However, I still know what the sign means.

Oh well, thanks for listening to my viewpoint. I still have some questions for those who have been there recently for some of our stops in France. I will try again, trying to keep spelling and posting mistakes down.

Or Nuevo (Nueva) York.

MyriamC : Huh ?

Thats a bit like saying " It's Mississippi with one 's'..."

Maybe you meant an 'eye' ?

Apologies MiriamC, I take my comment back. Its the characters on my keyboard and the font I am using. The capital "L" and the "I" look very similar. Apologies again.