Faire la grasse matinée (la grasse mat)

It is widely accepted in France that from time to time ( and maybe once a week ) you will have a lie-in - that is spend the morning in bed. This is called "faire la grasse matinée" - doing the greasy morning or doing the fat morning.

They just put forward a possibility for the origin of the expression on the radio. The idea goes that in the 16th century Mika's philosophy was very widely shared - "Big girls you are beautiful" - and so wealthy girls would spend the morning in bed to help them to put weight on to get as fat as possible. In the 16th century they talked of "dormir la grasse matinée".

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