I love this. I read it at school and it took me ages to work it out. See what you make of it:

Un petit d'un petit
S'étonne aux Halles
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! degrés te fallent
Indolent qui ne sort cesse
Indolent qui ne se mène
Qu'importe un petit d'un petit
Tout Gai de Reguennes

C'est bon, oui?!
xx

Someone's bound to know these, so if you do, give others a chance to understand and enjoy them for themselves. Here's another one:

Raseuse arrête, valet de Tsar bat loups
Jouse gare et suite, un sot voyou.

Lovely aren't they?
xx

Anyone got these yet? Here's another for you:

Chacun Gille
Houer ne taupe de hile
Tôt-fait, j'appelle au boiteur
Chaque fêle dans
un broc, est-ce crosne?
Un Gille qu'aime tant berline à fêtard.

Read them through a few times, but don't give it away if you work them out. I really thought someone might have heard them before, I think they're wonderful.
xx

Lucy! You said not to answer so as to give others a chance. But now that you are asking, they are all from XXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXX literally translated into french. They were originally passed as medieval french manuscripts.

The first one is XXXXXX XXXXXX, the third one is XXXX and XXXX. Your second example was just a footnote describing a Russian Imperial Court.

Hugs,
Marsha

You mean, “literally translated into English” don’t you.
The number of crosses correspond to the correct answers, so yeah, you’ve got it, though the second one isn’t really anything to do with the Russian Imperial Court (that was Marsha’s little red herring, girls!)
Have you seen them before, Marsha, or did you figure them out, or Google them?
It will really give you a big smile if you can work them out without looking it up, read them out loud if it helps, use them to practice your best French accent.
Knowledge of the French language need be surprisingly minimal to get these.
I smile every time I read them. Hope it gave you a smile too, Marsha.
xx

Maybe translation is not the best word. Phonetically speaking, maybe they should just read the darn things and figure them out.

Hugs,
Marsha