French language pedants, come and have a look at this.....

[DoNotBringLulu]

I was in town yesterday and noticed a shop with the name Bijou.

Is this supposed to appeal to a penchant for French chic? I would never set foot inside the shop, it's too cheesy.

They could have found out the plural bijoux and used the article: les bijoux would be grammatically correct, because there are many jewels in the shop.

At least the underwear chain la senza use the article, but I have no idea what 'senza' Means, it's not in my dictionary. Is it French/Spanish/Italian?

is it htat poncey bead shop?

Hm, I think that bijou is already used so much in speech as an adjective, that it is irrelevant what the correct french usage is.

MadameDefarge, bijou in English means small, attractive but fasionable so you have a point!

Dilly, yes it's a junky bead shop that also sells teddy bears, etc.

I always smirk at those little boutiques...how mean am I?

As a shop name, Bijou is perfectly valid.

In France, Les Bijoux would be very weird as a shop name, even Bijoux without the article would be odd. You don't see many shops called "Shoes" or "Flowers", do you?

"senza" means "without", so La Senza doesn't actually make sense - it literally translates as "The Without". But anything in a foreign language is bound to impress people in the UK, dinosaurs that we are when it comes to foreign languages (disclaimer: I know this is a huge generalisation and there are many multilingual MNers, it's the general population I'm talking about)

I lived in Germany for a year though and there were plenty of shops there with English names that didn't make sense to me, so it's obviously a common ploy to attract an element of mystique and/or exoticism

La Senza: without (your clothes on) I assume

I don't think it's just a British thing to use foreign language to make something seem cool/sophisticated/exotic. T-shirts in Japan are full of gratuitous English that makes no sense, for example.

I always thought La Senza was some sort of joke "the woman without [her clothes]", something like "the altogether" but as my Italian is non-existent and their tiny underwear doesn't fit me I am not really qualified to comment. I still will, though!

The biggest bra in La Senza didn't fit me and I was advised to visit Marks & Spencer where they cater for "larger ladies."

The biggest bra in La Senza didn't fit me and I was advised to visit Marks & Spencer where they cater for "larger ladies."

Oops!

I thought someone else had spotted it. There is a banner add at the top of these MN pages inviting us to stay in their Villas and chateux . I am deeply sad to have even noticed this but it has been a crap day and seeing this has given me a fleeting, if superficial, sense of superiority!!