Plaçons la barre un peu plus haut

First off, to answer yesterday's quiz: Carebears are called Bisounours in France, a combination of bisou and nounours (baby talk for ours = bear, pronounced oors)
Interestingly enough (thanks André:) they are called Calinours in Québec, combination of câlin (cuddly as an adjective, cuddle as a masculine noun) and ours, again.

Now, let's explore the numerous meanings of a simple word like une barre (pronounced bar)
Literally, it refers to a bar/rod. E.g.
une barre de fer = an iron bar
une barre de céréales = a cereal bar

Also means helm, as in:
être à la barre = to be at the helm

When speaking of handwriting, une barre is a stroke
la barre du t = the cross on the t

The word is also used to describe pain:
j'ai une barre à l'estomac = my stomach hurts (literally I have a bar in my stomach)

or a mark/limit:
il a passé la barre des 3 millions d'Euros = it went over the 3 million Euro mark
tu places la barre très haut = you have high expectations (literally you're placing the mark very high)

while speaking of money, une barre is also slang for 10,000 francs. It is still unclear how this word (and other similar ones) are going to be ported to the Euro world. Most of my friends stopped using them, but some insist they can be used for the same amount, except in Euros.

Finally, barre can also be a conjugated form of se barrer, slang for to leave, to go away.
Barre-toi! = Go away!

and I am leaving some more obscure ones, and leaving out some I probably don't know.