Le mot du jour : “Ça ne mange pas de pain !”
That expression, still in use today, goes back to the 17th century. Its word-for-word translation would be “that doesn’t eat bread” and its meaning is along the lines of “it’s not big deal” or “there is no harm in it”. It all goes back to the time when bread was the main food and the main way to assess the value of things. So if something had no negative impact on your capacity to buy bread, then you could go for it, there was no harm done. It wouldn’t eat out your bread’s allowance.
So you could say today “Je vais juste regarder le prix de ces nouvelles chaussures, ça ne mange pas de pain !” (“I’m just going to check out the price of these new shoes, there is no harm in that”)

Le mot du jour : “avoir du pain sur la planche”.

And yes, another one about bread!

So this one, “avoir du pain sur la planche” (to have bread on the board) means to have a lot to do. It could be compared to “to have a lot on your plate”.
It refers to the fact that doing your own bread is a lot of work. It does not mean that eating bread is a chore 🙂

As a girl married to a guy freshly converted to sourdough making, I can confirm that just making one bread is a lot of work!
So next time you feel overwhelmed by all the things you have to do, just say : “Pff, j’ai du pain sur la planche, moi !” And everyone speaking French will understand how hard your life is 😉

Le mot du jour : “Pour une bouchée de pain”
Today, we’ll carry on with expressions about bread, because it’s so present in French life that you can find it everywhere in the language too.

“Pour une bouchée de pain” (for a bite of bread) means for a very low price. It comes from a time when bread was the basic food for the poorest part of the population.

I read somewhere that in English, the expression would be : “for a song”, which I find so much more poetic and lovely!

Ex : Cette jupe était en solde, je l’ai eu pour une bouchée de pain (“That skirt was on sale, I got it for a song”)

Le mot du jour : “Long comme un jour sans pain”
Or, in English “as long as a day without bread”. That’s the feeling I had this morning when I entered the kitchen and realised there was no bread left for breakfast 😱

We use this expression when we want to talk about something that lasts for too long and is very boring or dreary.

“Ce trajet (journey) était long comme un jour sans pain !”

That tells you a lot about the importance of bread in French life 😀 Without it, life loses its flavours!

Le mot du jour : “se mélanger les pinceaux”
“se mélanger les pinceaux” can be translated by “to mix up the paintbrushes” so it means to get confused about something. I always thought it was about real paintbrushes getting all muddled up in a pot for example, but it’s not that at all, as it turns out.

“Les pinceaux” (paintbrushes) used to be slang for the feet or the legs. So “se mélanger les pinceaux” is actually about being so confused that you trip on your own feet!

Nothing to do with painting, I was a little bit disappointed about that, but, still, a funny explanation!

Le mot du jour : poser un lapin
I am going to stay in the animal world this week with this expression that could be translated by “to put down a rabbit” but in fact means “to not show up at a rendez-vous without warning”
I looked up to find the roots of the sentence and there are two different ones.
The first one says it appeared in the XVIIth century where a “lapin” (rabbit) was also a word to describe a story totally made up, a fib.
The other one is from the end of the XIXth where “un lapin” meant a refusal to pay and by extension a refusal to pay the prostitute you just had a “rendez-vous” with. Then the meaning evolved and now works for any situation where someone doesn’t turn up to a meeting without giving any explanation.
All in all, it’s not very flattering neither for the poor rabbit nor the person waiting for hours in vain!So if you are ever in need to say “Il/Elle m’a posé un lapin !” don’t forget to use your most offended tone 😉

Le mot du jour : “Quand les poules auront des dents”
Quand les poules auront des dents (when hens have teeth) means that something has no chance to happen.I think it can be compared to the british “when pigs fly” : same idea, different animals 🙂
That expression popped into my mind when I was looking at my teenage daughter’s bedroom, wondering when she intended to tidy up… 🙄

Le mot du jour : “rouler dans la farine”
I was thinking of this expression the other day when I was in the shop looking everywhere for a little bit of “farine” (flour).The expression has nothing to do with the disappearance of flour but means “to trick someone” and can be translated into “to roll in the flour”.

In a tale of Jean de La Fontaine (XVIIth century), a cat rolls himself in the flour and hide in the bread bin to try and catch a rat, but the old rat is clever and doesn’t fall for the trick.Unfortunately, we are not all as clever as the rat, and it still can happen that someone “vous roule dans la farine”!

Le mot du jour : “panier percé”

If you are a “panier percé” (i.e a basket full of holes), it means that you spend your money irresponsibly, like someone who doesn’t check the state of their basket before carrying food in it. 🙂

You can also find this idea in the expression “faire valser l’anse du panier” (to make the basket’s handle waltz = shake your basket so badly that everything falls out). You can picture the person happily skipping with their basket in hand, and all the precious things in it falling out!
It is usually used to talk about a person who is not very sensible with money.

These expressions bring up ancient times, but I guess people today would also say “faire chauffer la carte bleue” (to heat the credit card – which used to be blue in France)

Le mot du jour : Cloche de Pâques
Une cloche de Pâques is an Easter bell, usually made of chocolate. There is no Easter Bunny in France. Instead, we have the church bell, which, after being silent for the whole Holy Week, goes back to work at midnight on the Saturday night (or Sunday very early morning)When I was a kid, I was told that during the whole week, all the church bells had gone flying to Rome, and when they came back overnight, they rang and spread chocolate eggs everywhere. 🙂 I loved that story, and I loved even more waking up early to go in the garden and discover wonderfully coloured eggs!
I hope you all spent a quiet and happy Easter. Stay safe!