ON THE GRAPEVINE

The French, while they may be important consumers of dairy products, are not big milk drinkers. As Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec put it, "Je boirai du lait quand les vaches brouteront du raisin." I will drink milk when cows graze on raisins. The artist also fittingly described autumn as winter's spring: l'automne est le printemps de l'hiver.

Photos of grapes on the vine in the village of  Champillon, in the Champagne-Ardennes Region. Courtesy of Marianne Lecron.

Vocabulary
brouter:  to graze, to graze on
une vigne:  a grapevigne

Expression
Je l'ai appris par le téléphone arabe.
I heard it on the grapevine.

©2012 P.B. Lecron