I was a high school student on my way to the Soviet Union but we stopped over in Paris and were given some very limited personal time. I went to the "Tour Eiffel" and enjoyed a "Super Hot Dog" (both those terms were French of the day). On my way back to the hotel I remembered a charming old Danny Kaye song: Pigalle. Hey! I was near Pigalle. So onto le Metro and over to Pigalle. Boy, it sure didn't look like the song! There were these tall ladies with not very much on all over the place, mostly leaning against les balustrades, les portes "et" les fenetres. Some of them had wrinkles.

As the detective stories say: "I left that place". Puzzled, yet a little intrigued.

When I got the courage to tell my mom, she said with uncharacterize bluntness "The GIs used to call it 'PIG ALLEY'".