Auprès de ma blonde

"Auprès de ma blonde" (French for "Next to My Girlfriend") or "Le Prisonnier de Hollande" ("The Prisoner of Holland") is a popular chanson dating to the 17th century. It appeared during or soon after the Franco-Dutch War, during the reign of Louis XIV, when French sailors and soldiers were commonly imprisoned in the Netherlands.

The song's quick pace and lively melody made it well-suited to military marches, and it is still commonly played at parades. For the same reasons, it gained widespread popularity as a drinking song and nursery rhyme.

Appearances

• Film: It is heard during the parade scenes at the end of The Day of the Jackal. An English version of the song entitled I love only one girl ("the one I've got my arms around") was sung by Elvis Presley in the 1967 film Double Trouble. In the 1952 musical comedy film, April in Paris, Doris Day and Claude Dauphin sing (and dance to) this song in the kitchen of a French ocean liner.
• Television: The song appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Family", and '"Final Mission". It also appeared in the British TV movie Sharpe's Revenge being sung by General Calvet's men to Richard Sharpe and Lucille. The song appears as background music in a Marseille cafe in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, episode No. 3.22 of 2 March 1958 "The Return of the Hero".
• Books: Auprès de ma blonde is the title of a 1972 detective novel by Nicolas Freeling featuring Commissaris Van der Valk, and his wife Arlette of Amsterdam.
• In Dorothy Sayers' novel Busman's Honeymoon, Lord Peter Wimsey and his newly-wedded wife Harriet sing the song to express their love for each other.
• In Roger Zelazny's book Nine Princes in Amber, Corwin claims to have been the one who composed the tune to "Auprès de ma blonde".

• In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, he hums the tune in a war-time scenario.
• In Rue des Boutiques Obscures by Patrick Modiano, the tune is mentioned briefly, towards the end of the novel, in Chapter 43.