Comme le Pont-Neuf
Meaning: In excellent shape despite considerable age.
Language: French
Literally: Like the Pont Neuf
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The Pont Neuf, finished in 1607, is despite its name the oldest bridge still standing in Paris. Se porter comme le Pont-Neuf is said of people who have outlasted expectation.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Enfoncer une porte ouverte — To make a great effort to establish something nobody disputes.
- La portion congrue — A bare minimum, grudgingly given.
- Saoul comme un Polonais — Extremely drunk.
- Défendre son pré carré — To protect one's own territory or area of authority.
- Lâcher la proie pour l'ombre — To give up something real in pursuit of something illusory.
- Nul n'est prophète en son pays — Recognition is hardest to win from the people who know you.
More French idioms
- Une victoire à la Pyrrhus — A win whose cost makes it indistinguishable from defeat.
- En quarantaine — In quarantine; isolated from contact.
- Tomber en quenouille — To decline into neglect; to fall apart through mismanagement.
- Sans queue ni tête — Making no sense at all.
- Être sur le qui-vive — To be tensely alert.
- En rade — Stranded; left behind.
From our tongue twisters
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. — A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
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