I found a reference to "papier de merde" in the French Huff Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2012/01/26/billet-audrey-pulvar-elle-racisme_n_1233230.html


Are any of our French speakers skilled enough to discuss the nuance of the term? I doubt that "toilet paper" (or its more vernacular equivalent) catches the full sense of the expression (as used in the linked article).



I found another example elsewhere on the web:

"T'as fait vraiment un papier de merde, la dernière fois"



Perhaps "piece of crap" is an apt English translation?


3X (ever desireous of expanding his minimalist French lexicon)

I'm not sure about the whole "paper of sh*t" thing.

"You truly made a shitty/crappy paper, the last time"

I love the French. France truly is a great nation, just with different self interests than our own. I think they're looking back on the last 10 years and feeling pretty good about their decisions.

Won't even bother about all the many other speakers of French from many a far-flung place.

+1

Never understood the hatred towards France. Americans love their cream gravy, where the f- do you think it started?!? Bechamel, idiots!

Oh well. I guess I'll just eat my freedom fries and shut up.

Note that neither august statesman speaks Vietnamese ...

Unless this is an idiomatic expression I'm not familiar with I think the best translation is, "sh!tty paper" meaning sh!t"ty article or possibly bullsh!t journalism in reference to the magazine articles.

I may be wrong I didn't bother to consult a dictionary.

Agree with the other posters here. Perhaps it's the French version of our "Yellow Journalism?"

http://www.franceinter.fr/emission-le-billet-d-audrey-pulvar-y-a-bon-obamania

Par exemple quand il prétend décrire le « phénomène » Black Fashion Power dans un article dont la bêtise et l’inanité ne tarderont pas à servir de modèle du genre « papier de merde », dans les écoles de journalisme.

For example when it [Elle Magazine] claims to describe the "phenomenon" of Black Fashion Power in an article whose stupidity and inanity will soon make it the model for the "shit paper" genre in journalism schools.

This means "a crap article".

They're basically saying that the article is so bad that it will henceforth be used as the standard model of what a bad article is.

Best regards to all

Tom in Paris

--> "a crap article"

That feels like a good apprehension of the nuance.


Now, would "livre de merde" be idiomatic French?


because we can all think of a candidate ...

An extremely apposite description if the book you're talking about is the one I'm thinking about ;-)

BOM bom bom BOM

Mange' ma viandre!!!

And that, my friends, is pretty much all I got. :)

Ron