Even though I am not familiar with the French entertainment scene, I knew of Serge Gainsbourg. A multi-talented artist, he was a lyricist, composer, singer, film director, actor, painter, and photographer, and was born in Paris in 1928. Gainsbourg’s house is still in the 7th arrondissement, and when I first arrived in Paris, I was surprised to see the exterior walls covered with tributes from his fans.
The house, where Gainsbourg lived for 22 years, belonged to his actress and singer daughter, Charlotte, after his death. In September 2023, 32 years after Gainsbourg’s death, the house will finally be opened to the public.
Reservations can only be made online. There are two types of tickets available, one that includes the house and a visit to the museum located almost across the street from the house, and one that only includes a visit to the museum. As of early January, the set tickets are sold out until the end of May. I was also unable to get the first reservation because it filled up quickly, and when the next reservation announcement came, I immediately made a reservation and was able to get a reservation for late December.
It was the date and time of my appointment and I went to the museum first. Here I got a stamp on the back of my hand and received an audio guide set before heading home. Once we arrived home and placed our bags at the door, we started the audio guide. The tour begins with Charlotte’s soft whisper of “open the door” through the headphones. The guide is in French and English only, but both are led by Charlotte. Photography and video of the house is not permitted.
The audio guide takes about 30 minutes, but it is enough time to look around Gainsbourg’s house, which is small for a star, about 130 m2 for the first and second floors combined. The maximum number of people allowed to visit the house at one time was no more than 10, and we looked around as much as we wanted, imagining what it must have been like when Gainsbourg lived there.
First, enter the living room on the right side of the entrance hallway. This living room is the largest room in the house. The living room is also dimly lit, with black walls, and is filled with black decorative furniture, two pianos, photographs, paintings, a spider specimen, a model of the human body, a large number of police badges and handcuffs (Gainsbourg secretly received these from the police officers he befriended), and Gainsbourg’s favorite cigarettes, such as a cigarette butt, and cigarette butts. Gainsbourg’s favorite cigarette butt, Zitan’s, coexist in mysterious harmony.
Many interviews and photo shoots were conducted in this living room, and looking at videos and magazines from the time, it is clear that Charlotte has preserved the house in almost the same condition as it was after Gainsbourg’s death.
As you exit the salon, across the street is the kitchen. In a house where most of the walls are black, only the kitchen wall is white, which is striking. The compact but functional wooden kitchen furniture is lined with empty bottles opened on anniversaries and other occasions, an unusual clear glass refrigerator, a glass table, and a small television set. According to Charlotte, “The TV in the kitchen was always on. I wondered how the family would have been sitting around the table in this kitchen, which Charlotte says was her favorite place, listening to Gainsbourg’s voice talking to the children in the kitchen through headphones. I imagined what it must have been like back then as I listened to Gainsbourg talking to his children in the kitchen through my headphones.
Speaking of family, Charlotte’s mother was Jane Birkin, a London-born actress, singer, and model. Gainsbourg and Jane became the couple of the moment with the sensual and controversial hit song “Je t’aime moi non plu,” and lived in the house for 10 years with Jane’s stepdaughter Kate and Charlotte, who was later born to Gainsbourg. After the couple broke up, Charlotte would go to the house to spend weekends with her father.
Now, there was a children’s room behind this kitchen, but since that was the only room that was rented, the door was blocked when Jane left the house, and now we cannot see what used to be the children’s room.
Leave the kitchen and go upstairs. In the hallway is Gainsbourg’s small wardrobe. A few favorite outfits would have sufficed for Gainsbourg. Next to it is a small washroom and Gainsbourg’s workroom. The compact workroom is filled with books of various genres. Charlotte said, “We never went to museums or cinemas as a family, but I learned a lot here.
As you leave the workroom, you will find the “doll room”. It was Jane’s room when she lived there, but after she left, Gainsbourg collected and placed old dolls in this room, which makes me sad.
Next to the doll’s room is the bathroom. There is a large bathtub, a washbasin, and a bidet next to the door. I was a little surprised to learn that Gainsbourg rarely used the bathtub and used the bidet and washbasin to clean himself.
Next to the bathroom, at the far end of the second floor, is the bedroom. Although it faces the terrace, it is still dimly lit, and one wall is mirrored. There is a roll screen in the room, and Charlotte said she used to watch American movies with her father. And this is where Gainsbourg would be found dead after suffering from heart problems for the first of several times.
After the tour of the Gainsbourg house, return to the museum. The museum is dimly lit in the same taste as the house and presents Gainsbourg’s work and life with many audio, video, photos, and costumes. After the museum, the tour ends at a café-bar and a boutique.
After Gainsbourg’s death, when Charlotte missed her father, she always came to this house instead of the cemetery where many people came. After a difficult time following her father’s death, the mysterious accidental death of her half-sister Kate in 2013, and the death of her mother Jane last year, I hope that she has been able to put her mind at ease a bit by fulfilling her long-held wish to open this important house to the public.
A scandalous person like Gainsbourg may be difficult to be recognized in this day and age. But the scandalousness he shows publicly is a side of him that I found very interesting and fascinating, even though I can imagine how difficult it would have been for him to be around someone who hated solitude but was lonely, unsure of his own appearance, meticulous, modest, and sensitive.
© Source travel watch
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