# "There's a place in France..." **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 13, 1999, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132 "1999-11-13T21:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 1999, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/21 "1999-11-14T21:32:00Z")
The info is all here MrKnowitall’s ‘king Tut’,Nano’s 'Gypsie thing",Pixoids ‘hand motions’, ( see the walk like an egyptian thread) references to the 'snake (an asp?) it is obvious this is an authentic ancient Egyptian song." Oh the girls in Crete don’t wear sandals on their feet,and in their topless dress you can see their bouncing breasts." Ok another tune completly but do you remember, “Oh the ladies wear no pants in Pagopago, no the ladies wear no pants in pagopago,and since they wear no pants, they get chillblains when they dance, cause the ladie wear no pants in pagopago.” * * * “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx ---
**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 1999, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/22 "1999-11-15T01:27:00Z")
I learned it this way: There’s a place in France Where the naked ladies dance There’s a hole in the wall Where the boys can see it all But the men don’t care They just chew their underwear The underwear that they chew Costs a dollar ninety-two… All but the last verse has appeared elsewhere on this thread. I wonder where the last two lines came from. * * * God is dead. -Nietzsche Nietzsche is dead. -God Neitzsche is God. -Dead ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/23 "1999-11-17T06:03:00Z")
The tune is at least as old as _Showboat_, which quotes it for “Little Egypt” at the Chicago Exposition. I suspect that Kern did not write it (he often quoted the tunes of other composers). * * * John W. Kennedy “Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.” – Charles Williams ---
**Author:** ![beefymeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@beefymeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beefymeg)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 1999, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/24 "1999-11-16T21:05:00Z")
This is MY version, that I learned growing up, early eighties: There’s a place in France Where the ladies do a dance And the dance they do Is enough to kill a few And the few they kill Is enough to take a pill And the pill they take Is enough to kill a snake… It was kind of an exercise in rhyming - and looking back, it was pretty lame. Another childhood memory tossed by the wayside… * * * Sucks to your assmar. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 1999, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/25 "1999-11-16T21:28:00Z")
So, going back the the OP, where DID the tune come from? Is there a clue in JWK’s post? Was this the kootch music from Little Egypt’s act? * * * Uke ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/26 "1999-11-17T02:24:00Z")
Doug Yanega wrote: > [@](#): > > Um-diddle-iddle-iddle > Um-diddle-eye > Um-diddle-iddle-iddle > Um-diddle-eye" WAIT a minute!! I call foul! Those words are from “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, from _Mary Poppins_!! * * * Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/27 "1999-11-17T02:42:00Z")
I’m amazed… since “everyone” knows it goes: Well the girls in france Don’t wear any underpants And the guys go around With their penis hanging down ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/28 "1999-11-17T14:01:00Z")
Ok, our version was– All the girls in France Do the hoochy-coochy dance! And the way they shake It could really kill a snake! When the snake is dead, They will tie it 'round their head! I later dated a Frenchman (actually named "Jacques, amusingly enough) who told me that all the girls in France do indeed do the hoochy-coochy dance. But he didn’t recall any dead-snake tying going on. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/29 "1999-11-17T17:35:00Z")
> [@](#): > > actually named "Jacques, amusingly enough And what’s so amusing about the name Jacques? signed, Jacques * * * La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit. H. de Livry ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/30 "1999-11-17T17:45:00Z")
Amusing, dear, because it’s a sterotypical “Frenchie” name, like dating a Swede named Sven or a Brit named Cedric. Jacques also assured me that it’s true that “50 Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong,” though that still seems excessive to me. ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/31 "1999-11-18T06:50:00Z")
## The factual aspects of this thread seem to have been exhausted (heh). Let’s see if anyone in MPSIMS has another version of this doggerel. Nickrz GQ Mod ---
**Author:** ![krish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c57346/32.png) [@krish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krish)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/32 "1999-11-17T22:19:00Z")
Okay, I made a few mistakes on the version of the song that I posted. That’s what I get for copying and pasting. There’s a place on Mars Where the women smoke cigars. And the kind they take Is enough to kill a snake. If the snakes don’t die, Then they poke them in the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![WallyM7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5e925/32.png) [@WallyM7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WallyM7)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 1999, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/33 "1999-11-17T22:52:00Z")
On the other side of France Where the ladies wear no pants The men wear glasses To look at the ladies bums. * * * This space for rent. ---
**Author:** ![Pizzaman1800](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@Pizzaman1800](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pizzaman1800)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2024, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/34 "2024-11-29T01:20:59Z")
🎶 there’s a place in France where the naked ladies dance, and a hole in the wall where the men can see it all" is all i can remember from when i was a kid in 1999. i remember seeing an old movie (maybe 60’s or 70’s) where women were belly dancing at night around a fire and men were looking through a peep hole in the fence. i don’t think that is where it came from (maybe even a Bond movie), but i always associate that movie clip with this lyric. i would be interested in to where this originated, if it was around the time of that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2024, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132/35 "2024-11-29T01:57:47Z")
After this thread ran its course in 1999, Cecil finally got around to answering it in 2007. Congratulations to @John_W.Kennedy who got the origin correct. Here’s the rest of the story. > **[What is the origin of the song “There’s a place in France/Where the naked...](https://www.straightdope.com/21343812/what-is-the-origin-of-the-song-there-s-a-place-in-france-where-the-naked-ladies-dance-are-bay-leaves)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-place-in-france/11132.md?page=1)