Man finds grass snake in his beans

‘Fabrice’, from Sarthe in Pays-de-la-Loire, told local paper Le Maine Libre it was among yellow wax beans (haricots beurre).

“It was soaking in the juice and it was hard to make out what it was at first – I checked on the internet and it was a grass snake; dead of course.

“I wonder how it could have got in there.”

The incident brings to mind the expression avaler des couleuvres – to swallow grass snakes (which fortunately, Fabrice did not).

It originally meant to be subject to insults or other unpleasant situations without being able to protest, but now usually has the sense of accepting all manner of (dubious) claims as being true without objecting to them.