5 bis on rue de Verneuil in Paris opened its doors to the public this Wednesday, September 20. Serge Gainsbourg’s famous house, where he lived and died, had been closed since his death in March 1991.
“It’s gut-wrenching,” “moving”, “I’m like a crazy person” : the first visitors entered Serge Gainsbourg’s legendary lair on Wednesday, at 5 bis rue de Verneuil in Paris, 32 years after his disappearance.
The first to emerge from the half-hour visit, with the voice of Charlotte Gainsbourg as an audio guide, has misty eyes and difficulty finding his words. “It is very moving”, breathes Jérôme Bassin, resident of the Paris region, 40 years old. It evokes “bedroom” where the artist was found dead in 1991. And speaks of a “smell”that of cold cigarette butts in the living room ashtray, between a packet of Gitanes and a Zippo lighter.
“I cried”
Following the wishes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, who fought for the opening of this place to the public, nothing has changed for 32 years. “We enter a time machine”, cowardly, more verbose, José Sarica, 46 years old. Pin’s of the face of Jane Birkin – who lived here from the end of the 1960s to the 1980s – on the reverse of the jacket, this Marseillais took a week’s vacation to visit and “pay homage” to the author of Javanese. I will come back tomorrowhe confides.
“I’m upset, I cried, well I cry easily, but when we arrive in front of the bedroom, the place of Serge Gainsbourg’s end, it hits the guts”, he continues. He salutes the words of Charlotte Gainsbourg recorded for the audio guide, this guardian of the temple managing to be “so modest and at the same time delivering so much intimacy”.
As he passed the bathroom, he also “imagined Jane Birkin washing her hair, with her daughters Kate (the fruit of a first union) and Charlotte”. And to add: “It’s like I was 10 years old again, when I dreamed of becoming Charlotte’s friend.”
“We feel the presence of Serge Gainsbourg”
Yann Boucaud, from Charente-Maritime, 48 years old, is delighted to have been able to “get into everyday life” of the Gainsbourg family, when Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin “came back from the box” at the time when Kate and Charlotte “woke up”.
Charlotte gives “really great anecdotes”, rejoices this man wearing a Blur group t-shirt. Above all, he retains “the living room where he received everyone, where there is a whole collection of police badges and handcuffs”with whom the artist toasted at the end of the night.
He too was marked by “the room, where he died”and by the way in which “Charlotte recounts mourning”. “There is a lot of worn furniture, we feel the presence of Serge Gainsbourg”he insists.
“I wanted to be there this morning for the opening”
Barbara Zjafe, a 51-year-old Parisian, had an appointment for the visit at 1:30 p.m., but was there from 7:30 a.m. “I’m like crazy, it’s a very important day in my life, my daughter’s name is Charlotte-Jane”. In his hand, wrapped like a bouquet of flowers, there is a little cabbage, homage to The man with the head of cabbage, nickname of the artist and title of one of his legendary albums. On his forearm, the tattoo of Serge Gainsbourg’s profile.
Florent, 40 years old, resident of the Paris region, has a ticket for October 6. “But I wanted to be there this morning for the opening to the first visitors.”
For those who are just discovering the opening of the place, you will have to wait: it is full until the end of 2023. Some 100,000 visitors per year are expected.