vintage brass hotel signs

I ran across the collection of brass hotel signs above at an antique mall here in Franklin, Tennessee. I was instantly charmed by them and was taken back to my trip to Paris last summer.

My husband and I stayed at the most delightful place, the Hotel Caron de Beaumarchais, in the Marais section of Paris. It's a small hotel with an innkeeper who always seemed to be there. Keys to your room are real working keys on a brass tag. When you leave, you are asked to leave the key at the desk, a throwback to a bygone era.

The photo with the window box was the view out of one of our little windows and the two interior photos were from the lobby. The owners had decorated the hotel with French antiques, vintage pieces and a few reproductions. Despite the (nicely done) reproductions, the space felt special and charming.

Which is why these signs stirred such an emotion in me. The little blue hotel we stayed in didn't have such signs (and they would have been in French regardless), but I bought one just to reinforce the memory anyway.