Sound French with 170 Nature Expressions and Idioms

170 French expressions with nature + meaning and examples

A big part of France is covered with nature, and many expressions are inspired by nature. We can say that most of nature idioms are about the elements (feu, vent, eau, terre) but also related to agriculture (À tout bout de champ, en faire tout un foin). Nature idioms include expressions about weather, but also about flowers, wood, grass, etc. Some expressions also come from the influence of the sea and mountain (faire des vagues, en faire une montagne). These idioms are used on a daily basis by French natives, and sometimes they are the reason foreigners don’t catch the meaning of a sentence,—Why is this guy suddenly talking about a bambou?—thus they are also the tool that you can use to sound more French. Using expressions makes your speech more interesting, but poetic and sometimes more fun and catchy!


I sorted the most relevant, to give the idioms that you might hear the most in France. You will find that some of them can be used in the medias and newspapers, but most of them are used in daily spoken French ! Try to use them, vous allez faire un tabac !