It was in her Parisian home on rue d’Assas that Jane Birkin died on Sunday July 16 at the age of 76. However, it is rue Verneuil, in front of the building which hosted the Birkin-Gainsbourg couple, and whose doors will open on September 20, that anonymous people and the media have spontaneously come together. For many, Jane, “the most Parisian of English women”, as Anne Hidalgo hailed her on Twitter, was inseparable from the couple she formed for ten years with Serge.
At 5 bis, rue de Verneuil, in the 7th arrondissement, a few flowers have been slipped between the gates. “Charlotte, Lou (daughters of Jane Birkin), mourning you,” reads hanging from a bouquet; “Thank you for your songs,” on another. On the colorful facade of tags or posters, a young girl adds a heart surmounted by an “over the rainbow”, under the gaze of her mother.
Visibly very moved, Benjamin came to lay some flowers. “She touched me a lot, he explains, I loved this woman, her way of going through hardships. “Reference to the death of his daughter, Kate, born from a first marriage, who died in 2013. The 48-year-old Parisian had been able to see her on the stage of the Meaux theater last year, where she interpreted the songs of Gainsbarre . “One of the first albums I bought was a Jane Birkin album,” he recalls.
As he crosses the street, Jean-Patrick stops for a few moments, taken aback by the many TV crews and photographers in front of the house. Messy gray hair and a black T-shirt, he confides his sadness to see this icon of the 1970s leave. “She represents the spirit of the time, with the idea that tomorrow will be better than today. today. Jean-Patrick judges “that she greatly influenced Gainsbourg”, behind her image of a smiling and discreet woman.
Brigitte came from Val-d’Oise to pay a last tribute to Jane Birkin. It was his son who told him the news. “He said to me, ‘Mom, you’re going to be very sad.’ She’s a woman who has accompanied me all my life as a woman, I feel like I’ve lost a friend. The 65-year-old identifies with the “reasonable” feminism of the actress and singer, both very modest about her life and artistically free, both in music – everyone remembers the sulphurous Je t’aime neither do I – than at the cinema.
