Do you have a favorite French expression, in that language full of colorful expressions?
Ron and I don’t speak French to each other, but there are a few common French expressions that now pepper our English because they're' better than the English version, or don’t have an English equivalent. The ones that come immediately to mind are voila, oh la la, bon courage, en principe, faire dodo (to take a little nap), c’est normal (that’s no surprise), and santé (to your health), for a toast.
The ones I really love though, are the quirky ones. There are a gazillion idioms related to food, of course, in French. But I can’t begin to cover them all here. Example: tomber dans les pommes (literally, to fall in the apples, but it means to faint).
So here are a few unique expressions that I love. I hope you have some to share too!
metro boulot dodo: this is their rhyming way of saying “the rat race”, or “working to live”. You take the metro to work (boulot) then you sleep (dodo is a little baby nap), then you do it all again.
chic-ouf! I love this one, which my French friend Betty taught me recently. Its purpose it to express the feeling when long-staying out of town guests arrive and depart: Yay, our company has arrived! Yay, they've finally departed! In this case chic means great, or super (though it can also mean stylish), and ouf is how the French say, phew!
Belle mère, beau frère, etc. Put beau or belle in front of a relative, and it makes them a step-relative, or an in-law. How nice, instead of being the wicked step-mother, to be the beautfiful-mother!
èpoustouflant! The first time our châtelin Pierre wowed me with this long, amazing word, I started laughing. Whatever could it mean? Well, it means sort of what it sounds like: flabberghasting, breath-taking.
Cinq à sept: the hours 5 to 7, the "cinq à sept" in Canadian French are what they seem: happy hour. But In France it’s a different kind of happy hour: cinq à sept means the time right after work that you have a romantic tryst with your lover.
bisous: this cute little word means a kiss. It was useful during Covid, when you couldn’t do the cheek smooches as a greeting, so one just sort of leaned in and said, bisous! The word is cute enough that we have friends who named their little dog Bisous.
Now how about you? Do you have a favorite French expression to share?
In the COMMENTS: Anne-Marie, glad to hear you've stayed at St. Sabine, we've only just visited. Page, there is nothing more fun than happening across one of the great French village fêtes. I love to see them cook the old way, in those bread ovens that some villages still have. Bonnie and Suzanne, you've been to some of the modern guingettes--we have been to only one, that was on a barge on the banks of the Rhône in Lyon. Great fun.
Favorite READS & VIEWS: Natalia, who always has something wonderfully French for us, suggests a beautiful book worthy of display on your table basse, called Extraordinary Collections: French Interiors Flea Markets, and Ateliers. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this one. Madeline suggests watching Astrid on PBS Passport. In French with subtitles, it looks like a unique sort of crime drama, and I look forward to checking this one out. Speaking of crime, I'm reading The Last Devil to Die, another one of the Thursday Murder Club series. Hard to belive a mystery can be so funny!
