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The other day before lunch time I had the following conversation with a couple of colleagues:

Tu vas manger à la cantine avec nous ?

(Moi) Non, je vais manger mon repas ici ; ma femme fait la cuisine.

Oh, ta femme t'a comme...(if I understood correctly)

Then there comes the missing word or expression. From the context I guess my colleague meant that my wife takes care of me (ta femme t'a comme bibelot ?) but with a pejorative tone. What words or expressions could fit in this scenario?

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    "ta femme t'a comme bibelot" wouldn't really mean anything, I mean it's grammatically correct but twisted and no one would say that. Note that saying "ma femme fait la cuisine" in this context can be seen as pejorative, meaning something like "my wife, contrary to other wives, does cook, so I don't have to eat with you". If you had said "ma femme a fait la cuisine", that would have meant she cooked something recently so you had something to take with you today.
    – Destal
    Oct 16, 2019 at 9:20
  • Une mot se terminant par O ? Dis-moi... en fait tu étais au boulot et tu avais apporté avec toi un panier repas préparé par ta femme ? Alors... ta femme t'a comme Deliveroo ? Bon! D'accord! C'est pas fin!
    – aCOSwt
    Oct 19, 2019 at 15:05

2 Answers 2

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Maybe it was comme un coq en pâte ?

Although the usual phrasing is rather être or vivre comme un coq en pâte, which means to be particularly well treated, to be pampered for food, lodging, etc. Plus, it does not have a negative connotation.

J'ai été logé dans une famille d'accueil formidable: j'étais comme un coq en pâte !

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  • There is nothing pejorative about being in clover; it's enviable!
    – LPH
    Oct 16, 2019 at 8:02
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I don't have any idea of what might have been said ; someone did define « la femme-bibelot » in a remark on the possible relationships that can exist between man and woman.

  • le parisien      Il y a deux sortes de femmes. La femme-bibelot que l'on peut manier, manipuler, embrasser du regard, et qui est l'ornement d'une vie d'homme. Et la femme-paysage. Celle-là on la visite, on s'y engage, on risque de s'y perdre. (Michel Tournier, Artiste, écrivain, Romancier (1924 - 2016))

Il y a la possibilité suivante mais il faut répéter « femme ».

  • Oh, ta femme … t'a comme une femme-bibelot…

Considering the insinuation this would be rather strange ; yet you say that the tone was denigratory. I don't see how, from the idea of a family meal one goes on to the idea of someone being manipulated ; there is no ineluctable conclusion. The tone however was not necessarily true, it could have been mere put on so as to provoque a reaction, but that should have become clear right away. It is also possible that, as this happens sometimes, your colleague never assimilated precisely the exact meaning of « femme-bibelot » and was thinking about something else.

I can't give you any other inkling to make the word « bibelot » fit into this blank.

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