French Idioms and Proverbs / A Companion to Deshumbert's "Dictionary of Difficulties"

by de V. Payen-Payne

Vache

Parler français comme une vache espagnole = To talk horribly bad French. (See [Français].)

“Un homme qui n’a jamais mangé de la vache enragée n’est jamais qu’une poule mouillée” (Mme. de Girardin) = A man who has never roughed it is always a milksop.

C’est le grand chemin des vaches = That is the beaten track.

Le plancher des vaches (fam.) = Terra firma.

Vaincre

*“À vaincre sans péril, on triomphe sans gloire” = Where there is no danger, there is no glory.

[Corneille, Cid, ii. 2. Compare: “Scit eum sine gloria vinci qui sine periculo vincitur.”—Seneca, De Providentia, iii.]

Valet