Le Grenelle de quelque chose
Meaning: A large multi-party negotiation convened to settle a national issue.
Language: French
Literally: The Grenelle of something
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From the Grenelle agreements of May 1968, negotiated at the labor ministry on rue de Grenelle to end the general strike. France has since held a Grenelle of the environment, of violence, and of several other things.
More idioms — Daily Life
- L'habit ne fait pas le moine — Appearances do not establish what someone is.
- C'est de l'hébreu — It is completely incomprehensible.
- Vieux comme Hérode — Extremely ancient.
- Un combat homérique — A struggle of epic scale and duration.
- Un homme averti en vaut deux — Advance warning doubles a person's effectiveness.
- Honi soit qui mal y pense — Let anyone who reads something improper into this be the one disgraced.
More French idioms
- À huis clos — In closed session, with the public excluded.
- Mettre à l'index — To blacklist something or exclude it from acceptable use.
- Un violon d'Ingres — A serious passion pursued outside one's actual profession.
- Un coup de Jarnac — An unexpected decisive stroke, delivered within the rules but not quite sportingly.
- Jeux de mains, jeux de vilains — Horseplay ends badly.
- On ne peut être juge et partie — Nobody may rule on a matter in which they have an interest.
From our false friends
- Actuel — Actually means 'current' or 'present-day'. Actuellement = currently — not 'actually'.
- Blesser — Actually means 'to wound' or 'to injure'. Je suis blessé = I am injured — not blessed.
- Location — Actually means 'rental'. Une location de voiture = a car rental. For location (place), sa…
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