France bids farewell to Jane Birkin

(Paris) Stars and many anonymous people came to say a last farewell to Jane Birkin on Monday, “ex-fan of the sixties” as she sang, on the occasion of the funeral of the favorite Englishwoman of the French, in the Saint-Roch church, in the center of Paris.

The ceremony took place in the presence of his daughters, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon who carried the coffin inside, but also celebrities from music and cinema, such as Carole Bouquet, Catherine Deneuve, Etienne Daho, Yvan Attal, Benjamin Biolay, Chiara Mastroianni or Isabelle Huppert, welcomed by the manager of the artist.

The wife of the French President, Brigitte Macron, and the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, also took their places in the church, whose square was covered with flowers, testifying to the national turmoil aroused by the announcement of the disappearance of the singer and actress, Sunday July 16 at 76 years old.

“Thank you for loving us so much. […] I see your souls in pain. I can already see the void she leaves us. She’s my mom, our mom. Your mom, ”read Charlotte Gainsbourg, very moved.

Lou Doillon, also marked by emotion, recounted many moments of life shared with her mother, before concluding by saying: “Mom, thank you for all these adventures. Thank you for not being ordinary, reasonable and docile. This very peaceful and reasoned world of tomorrow, it already annoys me”.

At the end of the hour and a half ceremony, the casket was carried to the sound of Javanesewith several minutes of loud applause.

Access to the church was reserved for family and friends, but a giant screen was installed nearby to “associate the general public” allowing more than 1,500 people, according to an AFP journalist, to gather.

On the big screen was shown a black and white portrait of Jane Birkin, on which she appears with a broad smile. Many titles she has performed, such as And even thoughwere broadcast and punctuated by applause.

This Londoner, naturalized French but remained English in the collective unconscious with her delicious accent mistakes, was part of the landscape for more than half a century and her meeting with Serge Gainsbourg, singer as popular as controversial, on the set of a film in the late 1960s.

“We lack the light”

Monday morning, among the crowd present at the tribute, Jean-Baptiste came from Burgundy (Central-Eastern France) with a sign bearing the messages “Thank you Jane Birkin” and “Jane Forever”.

“Without it, we lack the light, I adored this committed woman artist capable of empathy for essential causes”, says this 66-year-old former teacher, who did not wish to give his name.

“Go join your Serge, Romy and all the others… One more angel… Thank you Thank you, my Jane! “, reacted in a message sent Monday to AFP Alain Delon, who had filmed with her in The swimming pool by Jacques Deray.

Celebrities and political figures are not the only ones to have been affected by his death. Ever since the artist was discovered dead at her Parisian home by her life assistant, anonymous fans have flocked, sometimes with bouquets of flowers, to 5 bis rue Verneuil (VII^e district of Paris, center). Place where she resided with Serge Gainsbourg, when the couple embodied the alliance of chic and shock, escorted by the scent of scandal of their famous title in duet “I love you… me neither”.

Flowers were also hung on the picket fence around the house that the film actress The swimming pool possessed in Brittany, in the north-west of France.

His disappearance also moved internationally.

“My dearest Jane is gone”, had posted on social networks Marianne Faithfull, another English artist, revealed by the “Swinging London” of the 60s.

“Jane Birkin was a beautiful and unique woman,” reacted Iggy Pop, a figure in American rock.

The disappearance of the singer Chic underweardied of natural causes according to those around her, occurred when Jane Birkin was planning to go back on stage after multiple health problems (leukemia, stroke).