All roads lead to Rome! Tous les chemins mènent à Rome!

We are here in "little Italy", a residential neighborhood in Boston, known as the North-End, located, as its name suggests, at the northern part of the city.
It is Boston's oldest neighborhood and was home of famous patriot Paul Revere during the American Revolution.
During the 19th century this area welcomed different waves of immigrations. Italians imigrants, settled here in the beginning of the 20th century. Needless to say that Italian is spoken around every corner and Italians restaurants, cafes and bakeries are plentiful here.

This is also the place where the Great Molasses flood took place in 1919 when a 50-foot-high tank exploded sweeping an immense wave of sticky molasses up to 15 ft high, in the narrow cobblestone streets of the city, killing 21 people. It has been reported that the smell prevailed for several years.

This book: "Dark Tide" The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, by Stephen Puleo, is dedicated to the tragedy.

Nous sommes ici dans la "petite Italie", un quartier résidentiel de Boston appelé North-End situé, comme son nom l’indique, à la pointe nord de la ville.
C'est le quartier le plus ancien de Boston où le célèbre patriote, Paul Revere a demeuré pendant la guerre de l'Indépendance des Etats-Unis.
Au cours du 19ième siècle, le quartier a connu plusieures grandes vagues d'immigration. Ce n'est qu'au début du 20 ième siècle que les italiens s'y installèrent. Il va sans dire qu'on entend parler italien à chaque coin de rue et qu’on trouve un grand nombre de restaurants italiens, de cafés et de boulangeries.
C'est aussi dans ce quartier qu'a eu lieu en 1919, la grande inondation de mélasse provoquée par l'explosion d'une énorme citerne de 15 mètres de haut, qui contenait la mélasse. Celle-ci entraîna une vague gluante, atteignant 4,5 mètres de haut, qui se déversa dans les étroites rues pavées de la ville, faisant 21 victimes. Il a été rapporté que l'odeur persista pendant plusieurs années.

Le livre : "Dark Tide" The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, de Stephen Puleo, est consacré à cette tragédie .

French Expression in context / Expression française en contexte

1. "Etre dans la mélasse" : to be broke, "in the soup" To be drown in the molasse: (the dark brown thick liquid) This figurative expression dates back to 1872. It implies that someone is in great difficulty/ in extreme misery. 2. “s’emmêler les pinceaux” : (lit: to get paintbrushes all tangled up) to get oneself all mixed up This idiomatic expression has no relationship with the world of painting. As a matter of fact, paintbrushes designate the foot (pied) or the legs (jambe) in French slang. In other words, "s’emmêler les jambes, or les pieds”means that you get tangled up in your own legs/feet". In a figurative sense, this expression means that you get confused/ all mixed up. The word "pinceau" originates from "pince"(a grip/ a clip) and by analogy the word came to encompass hands and feet. On horses, "la pince" designates the toe: one of the differents parts of the hoof (le sabot). Thanks to Marie-Noyale from Larchmont Daily Photo who brought up this expression in a comment.