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He recorded the duet “Lemon Incest” – “The love we’ll never make together/Is the most beautiful, the rarest, the most disconcerting/The purest, the headiest” – with Charlotte when she was only 13. moi non plus” alone sold more than a million copies – fuelled by the controversy surrounding Jane Birkin’s orgasmic moans. His 16 studio albums count 12 gold records, five double gold records, and six platinum “Je t’aime. To his detractors, he is a crude provocateur. To his fans, Serge Gainsbourg is remembered as not only the greatest French musician of the 20th century, but also as an icon of pop culture. If 5 bis allows one to delve into the man’s intimate life, Musée Gainsbourg at number 14 is a more formal arrangement, containing more than 450 photographs, objects, manuscripts, clothing, press cuttings and records, brought together to recount Gainsbourg’s artistic career. The project, which has been supported by Saint Laurent and its creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, also has a second entity, also situated on Rue de Verneuil. My father has already shared what he wants us to know about him, so I hope this house will evoke the emotion of knowing where he lived.” The entrance to the museum at 14 Rue de Verneuil © Alexis Raimbault “I want it to be an experience – a powerful moment, like watching a movie. It’s a gateway, says Charlotte, to understanding his legacy. The property, which once concealed all of the artist’s tastes and fetishes, is now here for all to see. Next week, Charlotte will open the house to the public as part of Maison Gainsbourg, the first cultural institution dedicated to the artist. His great contradictions were what made his charm Charlotte Gainsbourg On the bedside table – next to the low bed covered in black mink, a mirrored wall with flower-patterned cabochons, and a nude by Jeanloup Sieff – one can still find a pack of Smarties, Stimorol gum and aniseed-flavoured candies. In the kitchen, hot sauces, Angostura bitters and Worcestershire sauce line the shelves. In the wardrobe, Gainsbourg’s white leather Zizi Oxfords, the model of Repetto shoe that became his signature, still bear the marks of his toes. Today, as I look at his house, frozen in time, I feel he’s still there.” It was my way of pretending he hadn’t left of preserving things. Everything related to him became sacred, even a pack of Gitanes or a scrap of paper on which he had scribbled. I wasn’t very clear-headed at the time, and perhaps this wasn’t a healthy choice, but at least it allowed me to have a few more days with him. (Gainsbourg also had two older children with his second wife, Françoise Pancrazzi.) “When my father passed away, I lived his mourning very intensely,” she continues. Charlotte lived at 5 bis until she was nine, with her mother, Jane Birkin, and half-sister Kate, before her parents separated: Gainsbourg got together with Bambou, and had her brother Lucien.

“It was almost an obsession, to preserve and maintain everything as it was,” says his daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, who was 19 at the time. The office at 5 bis Rue de Verneuil © Pierre Terrasson The façade at 5 bis © Alexis Raimbault for Maison Gainsbourg 2023

Every aspect has been meticulously kept in the exact position it was on the day Gainsbourg died in 1991. Surprisingly confined, it is crammed to the gills, the close atmosphere amplified by intense black-felt walls.

“I don’t know if it’s a studio, a museum, a salon or a brothel,” Gainsbourg once said of the space. We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Music news every morning.īehind the inconspicuous door of 5 bis Rue de Verneuil is the house that was once Serge Gainsbourg’s Paris pied-à-terre.

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