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According to Google, home sweet home is

used as an expression of one's pleasure or relief at being in or returning to one's own home.

Is there an equivalent expression in the French language?

PS: The Google Translate suggestion is La douceur du foyer but I don't think it's exact in the context that one's returning to his / her own home.

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To start with you must be aware that the concept of home has no unique equivalent in French, this has already been a topic on French Language and you can read the answers to the question there .

There's not one expression that will translate the English Home Sweet Home. Different expressions will be used according to the context.

To answer your question, in the context of one returning to their home, where "home" is opposed to "somewhere else" one is coming from, I would translate home by chez soi. And where an English person would say "Home Sweet Home" I would say:

  • Qu'il fait bon de se retrouver chez soi !
  • Qu'on est bien chez soi !
  • Ça fait plaisir de se retrouver chez soi.
  • On n'est bien que chez soi.

But Home Sweet Home can be used in other contexts.
If I welcome someone into my house ("Welcome to our home sweet home") I might say:

  • Bienvenue dans notre nid / nid douillet.
  • Bienvenue dans notre foyer / dans la chaleur de notre foyer (although chaleur is more commonly associated with foyer, douceur is also found).

My propositions are not closed and other people (and particularly from other French speaking countries) could express this differently.

"Home sweet Home" as such, in English, can be found as a trade name (for instance it's the name of a chain of decoration stores).

Naming one's house is not as common in France as it is in Britain (I would not have direct knowledge of other English speaking countries), if we do find "home sweet home" as a house name in France, Notre nid which we also sometimes have, is probably the closest French equivalent.

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    Wow, une très très bonne réponse, bien détaillées avec plusieurs contextes.
    – The-Vinh VO
    Commented May 4, 2017 at 13:30
  • Dans son chez soi en substantif est-ce usuel pour vous ? Avec douceur voir aussi l'exemple de A. Karr au TLFi, c'est peut-être de là que venait la traduction de G., surprenante. Merci.
    – user3177
    Commented May 4, 2017 at 17:28
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    @Voléedechênesetrosiers Dans mon chez moi ne fait pas partie de mon langage mais ça ne me surprend ni me choque. Penser que Google s'inspirerait du TLF pour ses traductions me semble bien optimiste, ou bien la traduction automatique est-elle plus avancée que je ne le crois ? Par ailleurs je ne trouve pas étrange de parler de la douceur du foyer... Tu te rappelleras la beauté des caresses, La douceur du foyer et le charme des soirs, Mère des souvenirs, maîtresse des maîtresses ! Charles Baudelaire.
    – None
    Commented May 4, 2017 at 17:38
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Laure's answer is truly excellent. We could add to the list of expressions "Qu'il est doux de se retrouver chez soi".

In the litteral sense, "doux" and "douillet" are the nearest words to "sweet". The adjective "doux" is appropriate to designate pastries, materials, and everything that is soft/sweet, whilst "douillet" is only appropriate to designate interior confort.

We also use the English adjective "cosy".

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