“En parlant du loup”

Trans: talking about the wolf

This is a piece of folk speech told to me by my friend from Switzeland.  It is used when someone appears who was just being talked about.  It is a very similar on the English phrase “speak of the devil”

The phrase is interesting because it villianizes the person who is appering by comparing them to a wolf.  This is interesting because the phrase is often used after two people have been gossiping, which is something that is societally “bad.”  Instead it bonds the two gossipers together in opposition to the bad person they were just talking about.