Aside from this pun, which has nothing to do with the subject matter but amused us so much that we made it one of our first postcards.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of French expressions related to leather:
Avoir les cuirs qui se touchent (to have the leathers touching): to be short of money. This refers to the image of a wallet, which, when empty and closed, has its two leather flaps folded in on themselves.
Un rond de cuir (a leather circle):At the end of the 19th century, people working in offices who had to spend a certain amount of time on uncomfortable seats used to add a more or less padded circular leather cushion between the chair and their backside: a "rond-de-cuir". The decision to use this extra cushion, which one might find legitimate or ridiculous, inspired Courteline in 1893 to write the novel Messieurs les ronds-de-cuir. A book that delightfully describes the mediocrity of certain civil servants and their propensity to apply regulations as stupid as their cushions, all from behind their desks, without verifying the effectiveness of their laws on site. Generally speaking, a "rond-de-cuir" is someone who is not very engaged in their work. Georges Feydeau rightly wrote that "the lover is the artist of love, the husband is merely its 'rond-de-cuir'"...
Avoir le cuir tanné (to have tanned leather): to be hardened. Whether it's physical harm (no longer feeling blows) or moral harm (being insensitive to emotions, encountered horrors... etc.).
Une jolie fleur dans une peau de vache (a pretty flower in a cowhide):in the early 50s, when he arrived in Paris, Brassens fell madly in love with a young woman, Nadine Lhopitalier, who later became Nadine de Rothschild. She had everything to please, but paid no attention to him at all.
Tanner quelqu’un (to tan someone): to harass someone with demands.
Un gâte-cuir (a leather-spoiler): One who spoils leather; a bad shoemaker.
De fou vient folie, et de cuir courroie (From a fool comes madness, and from leather a strap): This proverb implies that one can only expect a foolish act from a fool.
Faire un cuir (to make a leather): To mangle the French language as one mangles animal skin to make leather. In its linguistic sense, the masculine noun "cuir" refers to a linguistic error consisting of pronouncing a "t" where there isn't one. It can also be the insertion of a "t" between two vowels. "Si tu ne vas pas à Lagardère, Lagardère ira-t-à toi" (Paul Féval - Le bossu) ; "Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre…" (18th-century nursery rhyme). It should be noted that certain "cuirs" are permitted, such as the phrase "va-t-en guerre". When you put a "t" instead of a "z", it's acuir!
Avoir le cuir dur or avoir le cuir épais (to have tough or thick leather): To be of solid, robust constitution; to have good health. To be insensitive to criticism.
