_Faire sa bonne sauce._--Présenter les choses à son avantage.
_Pas bileux._--Qui ne se fait pas de bile.
_D'un bibet il fait un eléphant._--Il exagère tout.
_En cas qu'ça sé._--En cas que cela soit, dubitatif ironique, pour: cela n'est pas vrai.
_Cousue de chagrin._--Une fille cousue de chagrin, elle ferait pleurait les cailloux du chemin.
_Suivez le cheu li._--On dit que c'est un brave homme; avant de le croire, suivez-le chez lui. Dans l'intimité, l'on se montre ce qu'on est.
_Plus la haie est basee, plus le monde y passe._--Plus vous êtes malheureux, moins on a d'égards pour vous.
_N'y a cô qu'sé à ses noces._--Il n'est rien de tel que soi-même pour veiller à ses intérêts.
_L'ergent ça s'compte deux fé._--L'argent se compte deux fois.
_Veux-tu être hureu trois jours?_ Marie té!
_Veux-tu être hureu huit jours?_ Tue tan cochan!
_Veux-tu être hureu toute ta vie?_ Fais té curé!
With the English tourist, at least, the Norman patois will not cause dissension, if indeed he notices it at all--or knows what it's all about, if he does notice it.
Every intelligent person, of course, is fond of speculating as to the etymology of foreign words and phrases; and in France he will find many expressions which will make him think he knows nothing at all of the language, provided he has learned it out of school-books.
Many a university prize-winner has before now found himself stranded and hungry at a railway buffet because he could not make the waiter understand that he wanted his tea served with milk and his cut of roast beef underdone.
French colloquialism and idiom are the stumbling-blocks of the foreigner in France, even if he is college bred. The French are not so prolific in proverbs as the Spanish, and the slang of the boulevards is not the speech of the provincial Frenchman. There are in the French language quaint and pat sayings, however, which now and then crop up all over France, and as an unexpected reply to some simple and grammatically well-formed inquiry are most disconcerting to the foreigner.
A Frenchman will make you an off-hand reply to some observation by stating "_C'est vieux comme le Pont Neuf_," meaning "it's as old as the hills," and "_bon chat, bon rat_," when he means "tit for tat," or "sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."