There was an old man named Francois/
Whose image was petit bourgeois./
Perhaps for a change /
He ought to arrange/
His life as a ménage à trois.
+++
After writing this, I decided to give it a go in French, as follows:
Il y avait un vieux homme, Francois/
Qui paraissait petit bourgeois./
Il avait envie/
De changer sa vie/
Et créer un ménage à trois.
///
This seemed to capture the imagination of some of my Twitter followers rather more than the English version, and several people volunteered their own rather fine efforts. I particularly like the one from TextheLaw, who also writes a blog with limericks at http://texthelaw.com/.
twitmericks 