Simple two languages localization implementation

Based on this thread I tried to implement extra english language for my website, default is french and doesn't use any prefix so something like www.website.com and switching to english would be www.website.com/en/, I'd like to have the url for contact pages such as http://ift.tt/1CIWgsU and http://ift.tt/1hD71BK for english and french version respectively.

My current routes.php

if (Request::segment(1) == 'en') {
    App::setLocale(Request::segment(1));
    Config::set('app.locale_prefix', Request::segment(1));
}
else {
    App::setLocale('fr');
    Config::set('app.locale_prefix', '');
}

Route::group(array('prefix' => Config::get('app.locale_prefix')), function()
{
    Route::get(
        '/',
        function () {
            //return "main page - ".App::getLocale();
            return view('index');
        }
    );
    Route::get(
        '/contact/',
        function () {
            return view('contact');
        });
});

My header file where the flag icon to switch language is

    @if (Lang::locale() == 'fr')
        <a href=""><img src=""></a>
    @elseif (strcasecmp(Request::segment(1), 'en') == 0 && Request::segment(2) != NULL)
        <a href=""><img src=""></a>
    @else
        <a href=""><img src=""></a>
    @endif

and the way I generate urls

<a class="block-title" href="">CONTACT</a>

I'd like to know a cleaner way to generate these and how I can get for english main page url to be www.website.com/en/ instead of www.website.com/en

Thanks a lot !

via Chebli Mohamed