- preg_match_all: documentation ( source)
<?php
$txt='"<optgroup label=" Gare du Nord - Gare de l\'Est - 10e"></optgroup><option data-max-adults="3" value="TIMHOTELGEst" selected>━ Timhotel Paris Gare de l\'Est / 3*"';
$re1='.*?'; # Non-greedy match on filler
$re2='(?:[a-z][a-z]+)';
if ($c=preg_match_all ("/".$re1.$re2."/is", $txt, $matches))
{
$word1=$matches[1][0];
print "($word1) \n";
}