Poisson d’avril - Mot du Jour

April Fool’s Day - French Expression

Part of Mots Du Jour | April Fool’s Day

Poisson d’avril - April fish - is what French people say for ‘April fools’ day’. It’s the tradition in France to play practical jokes or to stage pranks on friends and shout Poisson d’avril when they discover the joke. Often, the prank is just a paper fish taped on the back of your friend, when you pretend to give them a pat on the back. Very funny. It’s unclear where the fish idea comes from. It might root in the fact that April 1^st comes during lent, and fish would be a good present to give as a new year’s gift. The new year used to start on April 1^st. In any case, here is a great poisson d’avril I heard on the daily news a few years back. A lot of people thought it was true. Big chaos, I tell you.

• « La ville de Paris a décidé de déplacer la Tour Eiffel à Marseille. »
• “The city of Paris decided to move the Eiffel Tower to Marseilles.” (Marseille is a city on the South of France)

Expressions avec des poissons

• il y a anguille sous roche - something is fishy
• faire des yeux de merlan frits - to have a blank expression
• c’est un thon (offensive) - she’s really ugly
• verser des larmes de crocodile - to have fake tears
• être muet/te comme une carpe - to not say a word

Regardez ce poisson d’avril 🙂

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