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The colloquial noun oo-la-la land is a humorous appellation for France, a country in western Europe.
This noun occurs, for example, in the following book-title: Ooh-la-la Land: Escapades on the French Riviera (Workpoint Ventures, 2015), by the Canadian travel-writer Stephen Foey.
From the French interjection oh là là, the English word oo-la-la (which is stereotypically associated with France) is used to express surprise, appreciation, excitement, etc., and also to refer to sexual titillation or provocativeness.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun oo-la-la land that I have found:
1-: From the column Texas Philosophy, by Oliver Hubert Mickel, published in the Seward Independent-Democrat (Seward, Nebraska, USA) of Thursday 13th January 1921 [page 2, column 4]:
Young Mr. Daniel Cupid, […] during the late unpleasantness in France, was sergeant-major at headquarters, and acted often as interpreter. He could “parley vous.” […] The war was over. The khaki-clad host returned to shores of the Land of the Free. […] He drove himself through the money-earning tasks before him and today he has a ticket and passage and passports and an aching impatience to get back to “Oo, la, la, land.”
2– From the column Yir Frien’ Scotty Philosophizes, published in the San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California, USA) of Saturday 18th December 1926 [page 6, column 3]:
Paris editors are debating a new trouser style, reverting to the historic knee breeches for men. The extra expense of long stockings is covered by the less wear on the short breeches, they say.—News Item.
[…]
[…] Where do these editors
Who are leading the movement
Over in Oo-la-la-land
For toggle-terminated trousers
Get the big idea
That the extra expense
Of long stockings
Will be covered
By the less wear
On the short breeches.
3-: From the column Passing By, by Ed Reardon, published in The Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey, USA) of Friday 29th June 1945 [page 10, column 3]:
Mrs. John S. Roosma, the Colonel’s lady, is planning to join her husband in France for the next year. (He’s provost marshal of a great part of Oo-La-La Land.)
4-: From the caption to the following photograph, published in the Daily News (New York City, New York, USA) of Monday 2nd November 1953 [page 14, column 3]:
Mrs. Gloria Roth, who says she’s a Parisian housewife, is heading back to oo-la-la land, bids farewell at International Airport.
5-: From a review of April in Paris (1952), a U.S. musical romantic comedy film starring the U.S. actress and singer Doris Day (1922-2019) and the French actor Claude Dauphin (1903-1978)—review published in The News (Adelaide, South Australia, Australia) of Monday 27th December 1954 [page 2, column 6]:
The only real touch of Paris, apart from a few stock shots cut in, is the appearance of Claude Dauphin with a chorus of pastry cooks, in an enjoyable Gallic number.
Otherwise, it is left to Miss Day and the words of the song she sings to suggest the gaiety that everybody knows goes on in the ooh-la-la land.
