The end of the beans
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The end of the beans
I saw an ad today saying that you ought to eat more veg, and fewer bad things, accompanied by a picture of nice fresh veg, including some fresh "French beans", with the headline "c'est pas la fin des haricots".
It brought vividly to mind my dear old dad, who used the expression a lot (in both French and English). It's one of those expressions that no-one uses anymore, but everyone knows what it means. There are various theories about where it comes from, but the basic idea is that dried beans are both cheap and long-keeping: if your larder is so bare that there aren't even any beans left, you've pretty much hit the buffers.
So the phrase I've quoted means, roughly, "it isn't the end of the world" (to change your diet a bit). I've always liked it, and maybe we should try to bring it back into use. Or I may just have been inattentive: has anyone heard it "in the wild" recently?
It brought vividly to mind my dear old dad, who used the expression a lot (in both French and English). It's one of those expressions that no-one uses anymore, but everyone knows what it means. There are various theories about where it comes from, but the basic idea is that dried beans are both cheap and long-keeping: if your larder is so bare that there aren't even any beans left, you've pretty much hit the buffers.
So the phrase I've quoted means, roughly, "it isn't the end of the world" (to change your diet a bit). I've always liked it, and maybe we should try to bring it back into use. Or I may just have been inattentive: has anyone heard it "in the wild" recently?
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Re: The end of the beans
I quoted it from memory: the ad actually says "ce n'est vraiment pas la fin des haricots". But the sentiment is much the same.martyn94 wrote:I saw an ad today saying that you ought to eat more veg, and fewer bad things, accompanied by a picture of nice fresh veg, including some fresh "French beans", with the headline "c'est pas la fin des haricots".
It brought vividly to mind my dear old dad, who used the expression a lot (in both French and English). It's one of those expressions that no-one uses anymore, but everyone knows what it means. There are various theories about where it comes from, but the basic idea is that dried beans are both cheap and long-keeping: if your larder is so bare that there aren't even any beans left, you've pretty much hit the buffers.
So the phrase I've quoted means, roughly, "it isn't the end of the world" (to change your diet a bit). I've always liked it, and maybe we should try to bring it back into use. Or I may just have been inattentive: has anyone heard it "in the wild" recently?
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Thanks for that. Apparently it was one of the code phrases put out by the BBC radio French service ("Ici Londres: les Français parlent aux Français") to set off resistance activity around D-Day: "les carottes sont cuites, je répète, les carottes sont cuites".Kate wrote:Peut etre que les carottes sont cuites aussi!
Why does almost anything nowadays remind me how dismal Brexit is?
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5 French expressions
If it's the end of the beans and the carrots are cooked - how about pushing granny in the nettles?
All revealed in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGlC8_1t1Ps&t=201s
All revealed in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGlC8_1t1Ps&t=201s
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Re: 5 French expressions
Belatedly, I recall another useful expression. I made a tiled worktop for my sister in a Paris flat she rented decades ago. It was perhaps a bit over-engineered. Her boy-friend of the time said “you could hang your mother-in- law from it “ (though she would have to been quite short).Helen wrote:If it's the end of the beans and the carrots are cooked - how about pushing granny in the nettles?
All revealed in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGlC8_1t1Ps&t=201s
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