This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Inaugurated on September 20, the Maison Gainsbourg and its museum take you back in time to the days of the famous, disheveled and hair-raising artist. Ecce homo, vicarious.
It ultimately took Charlotte Gainsbourg 32 years to open to the general public the residence where she and her illustrious father lived. During all these years, this messy house has somehow remained vacuum sealed and all the everyday objects have been left in their place.
“When we got in there […]we had the feeling of entering the tomb of the pharaoh”, explained to France 3 Sébastien Merlet, scientific commissioner of Maison Gainsbourg. From 1969 to his death in 1991, the cabbage-headed man lived in this house at 5 bis, rue de Verneuil, in 7e borough. Her daughter admits not having dared to touch anything, a bit like Serge Gainsbourg did with Jane Birkin’s perfume bottles, in case she came back…
Covered in graffiti and sweet words on the exterior, the residence now reveals its inner soul thanks to a very intimate 30-minute visit, which is only done in pairs given the small size of the premises. It takes place in the virtual company of Charlotte, who directs visitors via audio guide, here by describing the rooms, there by telling an anecdote.
Almost the entire house passes through it: the living room where Gainsbourg received and gave interviews, the kitchen where empty wine bottles lie… “It’s an apparent disorder, but in fact, everything is calculated according to particular rhythms,” said Gainsbourg. , esthete collector.
Everywhere, the walls are black, “because in psychiatric hospitals, they are white,” he liked to say.
Upstairs, we notice the singer’s wardrobe and his cluttered desk, before arriving at the bathroom, decorated with a huge chandelier. Right next door is the bedroom of the master of the house, where he ended his days… and where the visit ends. No matter, there remains the museum.
After the House, the museum
Located across the street, at 14, rue de Verneuil, the Gainsbourg museum has a chic and simple facade. Inside, the place is very small, very tidy, like the house: after all, “you have to know how to spread out without spreading out,” said the man who used the verb brilliantly.
The museum takes the form of a long, dark corridor like a black trombone where we review in chronological order the major stages of Gainsbourg’s career, from his first successes to the decadence of his self-destructive requiem.
To the right, large screens present captivating video montages full of excerpts from his life and those who passed through it. Touching and captivating, they show as much the family-happy Gainsbourg as the scoundrel and ragged provocateur.
On the left, a long window displays 450 objects of all kinds linked to his life: paintings, posters, trinkets, photos, clothes… We notice a school report (where we learn that young Serge was “alive, very docile, shy and attentive”) and the program of the Trianon theater of March 19, 1958, where “new faces” like Serge Gainsbourg and… Pauline Julien are revealed.
At the end of the corridor stands the sculpture of the cabbage-headed man, which so fascinated Gainsbourg, and the staircase which goes down to the basement, where there is a temporary exhibition as well as the exit, next to two puppets at his side. effigy. Outside, another staircase leads to the Gainsbarre, both a café-restaurant and a piano bar, where you can sip a seltzer without feeling bored, while poring over a book purchased at the bookstore-boutique, like the souvenir book of the House . Especially if you were unable to get a ticket, like the author of these lines.
Whether or not we manage to visit it — no places are available before 2024 — we can always go and revere Gainsbourg at the Montparnasse cemetery. His tombstone, very simple, is covered with cigarette butts and composted (but not punched) metro tickets. Right above this big hole where he will never hear of holes again.
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This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.