Serge Gainsbourg’s Paris home to open to the public – ashtrays still brimming

Issued on: 03/04/2023 – 14:46

The house on Paris’ Left Bank has been a pilgrimage site for fans since the writer of “Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus” – affectionately known in France as “the man with the cauliflower head” – died in 1991. 

The atmosphere has been immaculately preserved, from the ashtrays still brimming with Gitanes cigarette butts to the baroque statues and multitude of instruments. 

“Well, this is my house. I don’t know what it is: a sitting room, a music room, a brothel, a museum,” Gainsbourg said during a televised visit in April 1979.

He lived in the house from 1969, initially with British-born actress Jane Birkin, with whom he sang “Je T’Aime”, which was banned in several countries because of its steamy lyrics.

Their daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, a successful actress and singer, said she was “very happy and touched” to announce the public opening. 

“I hope to offer the public a unique experience that will maybe give a different way of appreciating his work,” she said in a statement on Sunday. 

A museum across the road will also open, tracing Gainsbourg’s life and career, with a shop and piano bar called Le Gainsbarre, after one of the artist’s alter egos.  

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Charlotte held back on the project for many years, and then it was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It was all I had left of him, so I held on to it like a treasure,” she told AFP in 2021.

“But when I left for New York … I had some distance and I understood that it had to be done – for the public, but also for my mental health. I need to let go. It needs to be a place of French heritage that is accessible.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)