Sur le Pont d'Avignon


"Sur le Pont d'Avignon" is a French song about a dance performed on the Pont d'Avignon that dates back to the 15th century.
The dance actually took place under the bridge and not on the bridge.

Dance description

  1. It starts out with everyone in pairs and they dance around each other.
  2. When the chorus is done stop in front of your partner and traditionally the male will bow on the first part then tip his hat on the second.
  3. When the chorus begins again repeat step one.
  4. When this stops so does the dance and then the girl curtsies to one side then the other.
  5. For the first part, repeat step one and then if you have an audience turn on your heel and bow to them.

    Lyrics

Chorus

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

L'on y danse, l'on y danse

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

L'on y danse tous en rond.

On the bridge of Avignon

We're all dancing, we're all dancing

On the bridge of Avignon

We're all dancing round and round.

First verse

Les beaux messieurs font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça.
The fine gentlemen go like this
And then again like this.

Second verse

Les belles dames font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça.
The beautiful ladies go like this

And then again like that.

Third verse

Les filles font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça.
The young girls go like this

And then like that.

Fourth verse

Les musiciens font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça.
The musicians go like this

And then like that.

Variation

American music publisher Cherry Lane Music Company has printed a different verse :
Les jeunes filles font comme ça

Les jeunes gens font comme ça
The young girls go like this,

The young people go like this.

In popular culture

The episode "Chain_of_Command_|Chain of Command" uses this song as a means for Captain Picard, an appreciator of philosophy and poetry born in France, to resist the effects of torture.
The French fantasy comic book Hypocrite: comment decoder l'etirograph by Jean-Claude Forest centres around the destruction of the Pont de Avignon - here imagined as a giant petrified sabre-toothed tiger spanning the river. During the scenes set on the bridge itself the character sing this song lead by the ghostly Scottish piper Major Grumble