Stéphane Bern returns, in his column "The last word", on an expression that smacks of perfidious Albion: "This is not my cup of tea", a reference to the daily ritual of the British in the afternoon.

It is actually a simply translated expression, as the host explains.

Stéphane Bern suggests every day, in 

Historically yours

 with Matthieu Noël, to discover these expressions that we use on a daily basis without necessarily knowing their origin.

This Thursday, the host decided to cross the Channel to look at the expression "it's not my cup of tea", when you want to express your disgust or discontent.

With, of course, a small reference to one of the iconic rituals of the United Kingdom.   

"When we say 'it's not my cup of tea', we use an expression which has been purely and simply translated from English 'it's not my cup of tea'. It should be noted that the negative form arrived there a century ago, in 1920. Before, there was only the expression 'it's my cup of tea' to signify his interest or his pleasure.

An immutable ritual

The

tea time

is sacred to England in 17 hours, the ritual takes daily.

This can be seen in the statistics: the British drink an average of three cups a day, or 2.3 kilos per year, where we painfully reach 230 grams.

>> Find all the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern in replay and podcast here

In contrast, the British drink 20% less each year, while the increase in consumption reaches 10% each year in France.

His Majesty's subjects add cookies.

Therefore, the line takes a hit.

Beer in Germany, the beach in Brazil

If the French, considered

across the

Channel as

froggies

, use the expression 'this is not my cup of tea', it takes other forms elsewhere in the world.

The Germans prefer to say 'das ist nicht mein bier', for 'this is not my beer'.

In Spain, we say 'no es santo de mi devocion', for 'he is not a saint for whom I have devotion'.

As for Brazil, we prefer 'nao é minha praia', which means 'this is not my beach'.

Everyone has their own specialty, in short.

Let's finish with two beautiful proverbs about tea: first there is the English proverb 'the path to heaven passes through a teapot', which gives the very pretty 'the path to heaven passes through a teapot'.

Finally, the Japanese proverb 'the woman and the tea kettle always get better with age', which is more romantic. "