In the present study we intend to make a comparative approach of the translation process in the French and Romanian versions of the novel Tocaia Grande by the bresilien writer Jorge Amado.  Our intention is to show the mechanisms by which idiomatic expressions are translated into the two target languages, belonging to the same family of the romance languages as the source language, but which differ considerably from the cultural point of view.  Idiomaticity covers the semantic aspect of the phrasal units and opens the way for a double or a multiple reading depending on the context (that determines either the maintenance of the literal sense or engenders a metaphoric interpretation) or on the inferences operated by the interlocutor at the discourse level