“Selon les anciens se dit:
Si le soleil clairement luit
A’ la Chandeleur vous verrez
Qu’ encore un hiver vous aurez.”
Quànd Mars durerait chent àns l’hiver durerait autànt.—If March were to last for a hundred years, winter would last as long.
Mars qui entre coume ùn agné (agneau) sortira coume ùn touaré (taureau).—The Guernsey form of this saying substitutes a bull in the place of a lion.
Mars a enviaï (envoyé) sa vieille trachier (chercher) des bûquettes (buchettes).—When, after a spell of comparatively mild weather, March comes with blustering winds, breaking off the small dry branches from the trees, the country people say that he has sent out his old wife to look for sticks; and predict that, as he is laying in a store of fuel, the cold is likely to last.
Pâques Martine—guerre, peste, ou famine.—Easter happening in March, forebodes war, pestilence, or famine.
A Noué à ses perrons, à Pâques à ses tisons.—If at Christmas you can sit at your doorstep, at Easter you will be glad to sit by your fire.
Avril le doux—quànd il s’y met le pière de tous.—Or, as the Norman antiquary, Pluquet, gives it:—“Quand il se fâche, le pire de tous.”—When the weather is bad in April, it is the worst of all the months.