perdre les pédales – French expression

perdre les pédales — to lose it — Mot du Jour

perdre les pédales – to lose the pedals. Here, we’re talking about pedals of a bicycle. In everyday French, perdre les pédales means to lose control of a situation, to lose one’s grip, to lose it. The past participle of PERDRE is PERDU.

« J’ai perdu les pédales quand le terrassier m’a dit tous les travaux qu’il y avait à faire. »
- “I lost it when the landscaping contractor told me all the construction work that needed to be done.”