"Sapristi!" & "Sapperlipopette!": What do the words mean?

I know that in the original French books Tintin says "Sapristi!" rather than, "Great snakes!" in the English versions. Does anyone know what that means?
I looked it up on the internet and all I got was a publishing company.

It means something like "good heavens!", "by Jingo!" or "deary me!" in English. It's an old-fashioned, mild expletive.

Hi!
So how come Tintin says, "Great snakes!" in the English version??
And does he say "Crumbs!" in the French version?

There is already a thread about that here.

"Crumbs!" is just another similar expression of surprise, and probably isn't translated literally the French... MT&LL-C were simply looking for the sort of phrase that would be used by the characters in such circumstances - I mean in English one might have a character exclaim "Strewth!" in surprise, which comes from the very old "God's truth!"... - there simply isn't a way to make a direct translation convey the word(s) - "La vérité de Dieu!" wouldn't work, it's nonsense to create a new contraction like "'tédedieu!". But "Sapristi!" would probably cover the situation quite nicely.

And does he say Crumbs in the French version?

Well, not translated literally... (It would be "Miettes!", if translated directly into French!)

This brings to mind two books I have by Jean-Loup Chiflet - Ciel! Blake!/Sky! Mortimer! and Nom d'un Pipe!/Name of a Pipe! - which use frames from the Blake and Mortimer adventures to illustrate a few literally-translated idiomatic expressions.

Some French to English examples;
"Stop making the sausage!" - Arrète de faire l'andouille! - "Stop acting the fool!"

"He touches his marble!" – Il touche sa bille! - "He knows a thing or two!"

and English to French;

Cela prend le gâteau! - That takes the cake! - "C'est le bouquet!"

Jetons des pierres aux corbeaux! - Stone the crows! - "Vingt dieux!"

I love those examples of (all too) literal translation!

I have a cast-recording at home of a theatrical comedy revue from the early Sixties, called Four Degrees Over, mainly written by John Gould and David Wood - now known as a children's playwrite of some note.

It contains a song, Mon Ami Françcois, apparently sung in French, and then converted back to English by an on-stage simultaneous translation; however, this reveals that it is made up of colloquial English expressions, translated word-for-word into French, and then worked back, once again, into English by the translator:
"Mon ami François c'est un morceau de carte" - My friend Francis is a bit of a card
"il est toujour sur la boutielle" - he is always on the bottle
"comme un poisson il boit au Cochon/ et Sifflet" - He drinks like a fish, at the pig.../ ...and Whistle

"Sapristi" was first found in 1835. It comes from "sacristi" (sacristy)
It expresses wonder, or exasperation.
It is deliciously old fashioned!
French idioms are wonderfully translated into English (British) Tintins.

Good work gnolles!

According to the dictionary, a sacristy is "a room in a church, housing the sacred vessels and vestments".

So I suppose a literal translation could be "Vestry!" ;-)

There is a little difference between "sacristie" and "sacristi"

Sacristie is indeed "a room in a church... etc."
But Sacristi probably comes from "sacré Christ!" and would be translated to something more like, "Good Lord!"

I think you've got it! I owe you a proud candle...*
(* very indebted to you)