Literal translation
he wants to blow his nose higher than his nose
Meaning
he wants to rise above his station
Explanation
The image draws its comic force from its physical impossibility: one cannot blow one's nose higher than the very place where the nose sits, the organ that governs the gesture in the first place. Wanting to do so amounts to aiming beyond what one's own condition allows, and the expression is said of someone trying to rise socially or to claim consideration that their actual situation does not justify. It belongs to a family of Provençal and French expressions built on the same absurd principle, where a body part serves as a ridiculous measure of someone's outsized ambition, the best-known French equivalent targeting a different body part in a coarser register. The verb mouca (to blow one's nose) and the noun nas (nose) are very concrete and common in Provençal speech, where the nose often symbolizes pride or personal dignity. The register is familiar and rather mocking, used to tease someone's pretension or social climbing.