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The number 5 bis of the Rue Verneuil. in the Saint-Germain district, it is one of the most photographed places in Paris. And not because it can be visited, since its doors have been closed for years but because it was the residence of one of the best things that have happened to French music of all time. It was there that a rebel named Serge Gainsbourg lived, worked, loved, smoked and breathed his last breath., the composer of such memorable songs as that hymn to love called “Je t’aime moi non plus.” The facade of the building is always full of graffiti in homage to Gainsbourg to the point that it is the only place in the French capital where the City Council allows public graffiti to be made without penalty of a fine.
Last week marked thirty years since the disappearance of the myth. For that reason, Charlotte Gainsbourg, the actress daughter of Serge and Jane Birkin, announced in an interview with AFP that she hopes by the end of this year to fulfill an old dream, which is to open her father’s house to the public as a museum. Charlotte stated that her wish was to be able to inaugurate this March, but the current health crisis forces her to delay everything until the end of the year.
On what the visitor to the house will find, Charlotte Gainsbourg notes that «It is his private mansion, we will not discover things about his work but the framework of his production. It’s him, his personality, and quite amazing. We have the image of artists who are in huge and luxurious spaces, however, here everything is relatively modest». Inside the house there is’ a small kitchen. Initially it was the family home, with my mother, my sister, him and me. In my mother’s (Birkin) time there was little, then after that there was more and more neatly arranged mess. During his life he transformed it into a museum full of objects, it was difficult to walk without being afraid of breaking something ».
And it is that, as did his admired Salvador Dalí, Serge Gainsbourg thought that his house was an extension of his work. For this reason, in this very personal labyrinth, all kinds of objects are mixed, from a collection of decorations to an imposing life-size photograph of Brigitte Bardott through an original by Dalí himself. Scores, records, distinctions of all kinds or the original score of “La Marseillaise” are some of the many treasures that are part of a paradise that is close to being accessible to all who admire the unclassifiable musician.
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