ABSTRACT
This chapter contains expressions, both old and new, certified and apocryphal, coming from a broad variety of sources. They are constantly used in the press and in everyday oral exchanges, either requoted verbatim or punned upon. Several of them are not French but are frequently used in the French language. In 1995 Alain Juppé was invited to take part in the news magazine programme Le Journal de 20h on channel TF1. He was questioned about the scandal concerning the extremely low rent of his flat in one of the most expensive districts of Paris. In 1870, on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War, during the parliamentary debate on the mobilization of the French forces, certain members of the French Assembly expressed doubts about the readiness of the army. The minister of war, Maréchal Edmond Lebœuf, said that even if war were to last two years, there would not be a gaiter button missing on the uniform of any French soldier.
