Pandore.
Came across it in a novel I’m reading on the Kindle device. It’s a great way of reading in French because you can highlight words or phrases and get an instant translation.
Or not, in this instance.
Apparement, « Pandore est un nom masculin familier et vieux qui désigne un gendarme. Il vient du personnage de Pandore , héros d’une chanson de G.Nadaud. »
I used to check some English words, it’s a great resource.
Interesting. I’ve never heard of the word.
Word ref gives : pandore nm|argot, vieilli (gendarme) (slang)|cop, copper
| | (UK, slang, dated)|bobby, peeler n|
| | (UK, slang, dated)|bluebottle n|
Here’s the original song:
That’s quite old slang, these days, but still, vocab is vocab!
“Ils vont me rendre chèvre.” I read in Sud Ouest this morning
I think this translates along the lines of:
They’re going to drive me crazy! (they’re driving me mad … it’s driving me mad)
which does fit in with the rest of the article…
anyone any better ideas, as I’d love to add this phrase to my repertoire 
As a suggestion: wiktionnaire
ha ha… I can and do use translation tools as a last resort… but prefer to figure things out with regard to the surrounding text.
Just wondered if people already used the phrase and, if so, for which situations…
My new French word of the day - “le crapauduc”.
(courtesy of SANEF Autoroutes’ email newsletter).
Apparently it’s a small tunnel under the autoroute to allow toads and other small creatures to pass from one side to the other.
Quite how they teach les crapauds to use the tunnel instead of going hoppitty-hop-splat on the carriageway, is not explained. 
This is exactly what I and others have been doing recently, during the current wave of toads migrating (often across busy roads) for access to breeding grounds. They are guided by these plastic barriers either into regularly emptied buckets for ferrying across a road, or into culverts under the road (which are effectively crapauducs). The latter cost about 6k€ to construct just for toads, so they are few and far between. On two small sections of road here in Seine Maritime my co-volunteers have scooped up 3000+ toads, newts,frogs etc from the buckets in the past 2-3 weeks.
Well there’s a coincidence! Who knew we had a dedicated Toad-Migrator in our midst!
It beats falling off castles, which was George1’s previous exploit
True, although that at least had the virtue of providing opportunities for kissing princesses instead of frogs… 
Back to the dangerous dating thread!
Surrey County Council handle the problem more cheaply near Shalford Pond with a seasonal Cockney Rhyming slang road sign…
Around us there seem to be millions of cowslips brightening up the ditches/verges…
My walking pal calls these plants “coucou”
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver white
And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he;
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!’
Love’s Labour Lost. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
The name ‘Cuckooflower’ was explained by 16thc. herbalist, John Gerard:
“These flower for the most part in April and May when the Cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant notes without stammering”
I wonder if there is already a French translation of this poem… I’d love to share it with my pal…
I’ll tell “coucou” comes from a Brit “William Shakespeare” and let her look it up for herself. 
