Change from the maths lesson!

a) Can u change hate to love in only 4 moves and u can only change one letter at a time which must still make a word. Also try leep to reel.
e.g. came to lone. came,come, cone,lone.

b) Can you work out the answer to this riddle?
I am a place with 10 letters.
I start and end with two different constants.
In my middle, I have two vowels together.
I come from the French language.
I contain the word “ran”.
What am I?