Day 3281 (Tuesday) 2nd June 2026

This is the Chateau d’Anglais between Nice and Villefranche

and this is another interesting view of Villefranche-sur-Mer.

 

The expensive cruise ship left last night and it was lovely to see all the sails up.

Funny French Expressions Lost in Translation. A guide to understanding some French expressions, whose literal translation can be hilarious.

When you think of France and the French language, love and romance are the first words that come to mind…until you start learning the language at a more advanced level.

Certain everyday expressions can sound sometimes a little bit crude, while others can be very imaginative.

Here is a guide to understanding some French expressions, whose literal translation can be very creative and funny.

Let’s start!

Il me court sur le haricot

“He’s running on my bean”, meaning he’s getting on my nerves. The “bean” corresponds in slang to a “toe”. Running on the toes can actually be very annoying.

Pédaler dans la semoule

“To pedal in semolina“, to get nowhere fast, as to say to go around in circles.

It is a metaphor that compares our difficulty in getting ourselves out of trouble to the difficulty of a cyclist if he had to move forward in trouble.

Ça me gonfle

“It blows me up” to say “this is annoying me”. We are talking here about testicles (or roubignolles, coucougnettes), in any case of the same caliber as the expression “breaking the balls”.

Péter un câble or Péter un plomb

The French don’t “go off the rails”, they “break a cable or a fuse”. When the pellets overheat, following too much electrical intensity, they “fart” and break down. The expression thus illustrates a sudden nervousness, of such intensity that the reaction is unexpected and disproportionate.

Ne pas y aller de main morte

Literally, “don’t go with a dead hand“, when a person does an action with a lot of energy. The “dead hand” symbolises a powerless hand, thus an action is carried out dynamically, even violently.

The French have many more expressions related to the parts of the body.

Here are the most commonly used.

Ça me fait une belle jambe

“It gives me a beautiful leg“, not to care or couldn’t care less. The English equivalent would be “a fat lot of good that will do me”. In the 17th century, it was synonymous with coquetry and refinement for men to wear stockings. The custom has become ridiculous and in the 19th  century, this expression refers to the lack of interest that men showed in the shape of their legs.

Avoir les jambes en coton

“To have cotton legs” is another French expression related to the legs. It dates back to the mid-19th century and was created by Stendhal in his book “the Charteuse de Parme”. It is simply a sign of discomfort, a state of temporary fatigue leading to low energy and cotton legs cannot support someone.

Avoir les chevilles qui enflent

Going down to the ankles, “to have swollen ankles” means to be pretentious. This expression is said to be based on a play on words about Oedipus, whose name in Greek means “swollen foot,” and is known to be someone very confident. This confident man was always so sure of his judgments that he would never question them.

Les doigts dans le nez

“Fingers in the nose” to give the idea of achieving something without difficulty and without effort. An English person would say “with one hand tied behind your back” or “a piece of cake”. Curiously, this expression dates back to 1912 in horse racing when the jockey arrived first with his fingers up his nose.

Tirer les vers du nez

Another ancient expression “nose-related” dating back to the 15th century, it can be translated as “pull the worms out of the nose“, skillfully extracting someone’s secrets. At that time there was a disease called in French “vers rinaires”, a common parasite that was staying in the nose. People were ashamed of telling it to their doctor. The medical practitioner had to interrogate the patient to make him/her confess, it was said that the doctor was “pulling the worms out of the noses” to the patient.

Se mettre le doigt dans l’oeil

Literally, “put your finger in the eye“. It is when a person is being grossly mistaken coming from the idea of someone who is wrongly doing the sign of the cross by putting his finger in his eye.

Less sofisticated expressions include another part of the body and French have many ways of referring to it!

Avoir le cul entre deux chaises

“Having the arse between two chairs”, being torn between two situations, since sitting between two chairs can actually be quite discomforting.

Avoir la tête dans le cul

The French are not “tired”, they have “their head up their arse”. In English you would say “to feel like shit” or “to get up on the wrong side of the bed”

Péter plus haut que son cul

This is another expression “arse-related”, whose literal translation is “farting higher than your arse” to tell that someone is “big-headed”, i.e. when a person acts in a pretentious way and feels very important.

Avoir le cul bordé de nouilles

This colourful expression can be translated as “to have the arse surrounded by noodles“, meaning to be very lucky, “to have the luck of the devil”.

Avoir un pet de travers

Still related to the same part of the body, the literal translation is to “have a crooked fart“, meaning that “you’re farting sideways” to tell you that you’re grumpy”.

Pisser dans un violon

Still body-related, the French say “piss in a violin” as to say “waste your breath, talk to a wall”.

They think, in fact, that the action or speech is useless and has no efficiency since peeing in a violin won’t produce anything. In English you would say “to piss in the wind”, which is also very figurative.

S’en foutre comme de sa première chemise

With another “colourful” expression, the French don’t tell you that “they don’t care”, they tell you that “they care about it like they care about their very first shirt”.

More of these to come tomorrow…

This was Badger this afternoon sitting on my bedside table.