Pronunciation dilemma

Not exactly a travel question, but I can%26#39;t find the answer anyplace. For years, I%26#39;ve been making fun of my friend from Texas who refers to a small apartment in town as a %26quot;pierre a tay%26quot;, and I always correct her with %26quot;pied a terre.%26quot; Last night, I was watching - of all things - What You Get for the Money International, and heard the narrator refer to a certain kind of apartment in Paris as a %26quot;pierre a tai%26quot; or something like that. Was that another gross mispronunciation, or does such a thing exist? What%26#39;s a %26quot;pierre a tai%26quot; (don%26#39;t know how to spell it). Thank you!

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The liaisons should be well stressed : %26quot;piayt ah tear%26quot;, or something approaching in mock English phonetics!

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Bonjour UpgradeQueen, (love you name BTW)

Just another gross mispronunciation, like Saint-Germaine, Woila,

Bon appetite and so much other. As a French person living in North America I hear them everyday, after a while you just stop correcting them.

Here is link to a computerized program that will read to you in French what you type. The voice is far from perfect and actually sound a bit robotic to my ears.Some important liaisons are not done, but since TA does not allow phonetics that will have to do.

A tip: write a full sentence that include the word you want to hear. By example %26quot;J%26#39;aimerais vous faire visiter mon pied-à-terre parisien.%26quot;

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/drpb6

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%26gt;%26gt; %26quot;pierre a tai%26quot; %26lt;%26lt;

I bet it%26#39;s %26quot;pierre de taille%26quot; (in rough English phonetics : Pyear duh tye), which refers to the variety of stone used in the Haussmanian buildings. It is a quite a synonym for %26quot;upscale%26quot; when speaking of a building.