I thought I was losing my mind. I was thinking "what on EARTH is he saying, that's not a nursery rhyme, those aren't even French phrases."

bel, I should have warned you. The mock-premise of the book is that these passages are taken from medieval manuscripts recently found in an old ruined abbey. The author then proceeds to "explain" each phrase with a series of pseudo-scholarly footnotes. In other words, all must be read with a very large dose of .

For example, the book's footnotes will soberly inform you:

Un petit d'un petit (1)
S'etonne aux Halles (2)

1. The inevitable result of a child marriage
2. The subject of this epigrammatic poem is obviously from the provinces, as a native Parisian would take this famous old market for granted.