"Les Amoureux des Bancs Publics" is a French chanson by Georges Brassens, who wrote both the music and the lyrics. It was originally titled "Bancs publics". Brassens drew his inspiration from the 1926 novel "Amours en province" by Jeanne Ramel-Cals, whose passages on public gardens and lovers on benches he had underlined, and he sketched the song in a notebook from 1947. The original recording, by Georges Brassens et sa guitare, dates from 1 October 1953. It was issued as a 45 rpm single that year and appeared on the 33 rpm album "Le Vent" in February 1954. Patachou recorded the song in 1953 on her album "Patachou... chante Brassens".
Later versions include those by Petula Clark (1964), Denis Pépin (1975), Daniel Guichard (1976), Renée Claude (1993), Renaud (1996), Maxime Le Forestier (live, 1998), Michel Jonasz (2007) and Léa Drucker (2016). Franz Josef Degenhardt adapted the song into German as "Junge Paare auf Bänken" (1986), and Fubuki Koshiji recorded a Japanese version in 2011. Instrumental adaptations include "Mazurka Maria" by Cuarteto Puerto Rico (1956), which is said to resemble the song.
