There is no reason to consider a French origin for this English drinking song. It may have had its origin in schools such as Cambridge, Oxford, or Edinburgh, where French and classical languages were taught as important to an educated person.

Not certain when the title "Vive l'amour" appeared, but it is found in several 19th c. books of student song, e. g. "Carmina collegensis," 1868, and the "Scottish Students' Song Book (mine is the 1892 ed.), where the first verse, "Let Bacchus to Venus..." is dropped.

Parodies in "Carmina collegensis" (1868) are "Vive le N. Y. U.," and, at Dartmouth, "Let Ev'ry Young Sophomore Fill Up His Glass."
In the Dartmouth song, classic Greek is substituted for the French; the chorus becomes an exhortation in Greek:
Hetai, Hetai, Hetaroi....... Hetaroi Chairete! (Companions, rejoice!).
The Hetaroi were mounted troops in the army of Alexander the Great.