“I wanted to tell my childhood vision.” Charlotte Gainsbourg previews her father’s house.

Upset. On the sidewalk at 5 bis, rue de Verneuil in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, the privileged few who were able to enter Maison Gainsbourg left their visit particularly excited. Since Serge Gainsbourg’s death in 1991, the legendary place where the cult author lived for twenty-two years was owned by his daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, who came to take refuge there from time to time. time The private house with an area of ​​130 m2 can now be visited alone or in pairs, with a maximum of 10 people in the house at the same time.

After hesitating to sell it, to live there, to turn it into a kind of new Villa Medici for artists, the actress finally decided to open this address to the public. Better yet, he goes so far as to introduce the place through his childhood memories and guide the visitor step by step using a geographical audio guide. “At the very beginning, I said to myself: how can I visit Vernoy Street?” I thought silently because this is how I lived this place since my father’s death and I didn’t want his voice to be there, to be a ghost. I wanted to tell my memories, the vision of my childhood,” says Charlotte Gainsbourg during the round table organized after the visit. “It seems that today I gave myself an exclusivity. I wanted to be more modest at first. I told my mom, Jane Birkin, that it would be nice if she did the voiceover for the visit as well, like Bambu and maybe even the people who worked with her… But her. told me it was old for him and that this project was my thing. »

Thousands of treasures

In total, 25,000 objects were displayed between the living room, the kitchen, Jane Birkin’s bedroom, renamed the “doll room” due to her separation from the musician, the dressing room, the bathroom and even the bedroom where Serge Gainsbourg was found. died in 1991 on March 2. “Sébastien Merle, who is the scientific commissioner of Maison Gainsbourg, and Anatole Magyar, director of content and programming, have done archaeological work and thanks to them I have discovered many things,” explains Charlotte Gainsbourg. Sometimes it was even complicated, because they gave me everything to see, to validate, to look at, even though sometimes I was not ready at all. I still have a very superficial relationship with my father and his work, for example, for a long time I refused to listen to his songs, watched his videos… Sometimes I even pretended to know what Sebastian and Anatol were telling me or pretended to read the documents I brought to me. I like to know things about my father, but I don’t want them forced on me, so I haven’t read one of his biographies yet.” If the actress and director owns that space, she has ensured for every important decision that Serge’s three more children (Natasha and Paul, born from the union of Serge Gainsbourg and Françoise-Antoinette Pancrazy and Lucien, a son the singer had: Bambu ) agreed with him.

Serge was seen by Gainsbourg

The visit continues in the opposite museum at number 14. Among the selection of thousands of items, 3,500 precious manuscripts were found, such as a letter from Jacques Prévert to Serge Gainsbourg authorizing the use of his name for one of his songs. , or even a hand-signed note by Francis Bacon, a Dali drawing… In front of the exhibited manuscripts, magazine covers and unpublished documents, three giant screens show images and interviews with Serge Gainsbourg. A rare and valued thing. therefore the artist is almost the only one telling his story in this museum.

Visitors are then invited to discover a bookstore-boutique and piano-bar café called Le Gainsbarre. A museum, like a house, must evolve to encourage visitors to return, but also to protect the works. Charlotte Gainsbourg kept everything, and if with this opening she still does not feel the weight, she is happy that she did it for her children and not to take the responsibility of this house on them. Didn’t she feel like she was exposing herself too much with this house? “I have always lived on the immodest side. We have this in our family and I don’t think I could have it any other way. Anyway, I feel like everyone knows so much about my dad that I don’t feel like I’m giving away secrets through this place. On the other hand, I have the impression that it gives a different vision to his work, to his daily life, and I find it incredible that someone of his stature has a house with such a small kitchen and such low ceilings. It seemed normal to me at the time, but today with artists who sometimes have delusions of grandeur, I realize how humble he was.

He, who alone managed this house for 19 years, told his mother in his film. Jane by Charlotte, that the opening of Vernoy Street will be the end of something. Verdict: “It’s really the end of something, but with my mother’s death recently, it’s a bit too much for me… I don’t want to put it that way yet. I can’t wait for Maison Gainsbourg to open, for people to be happy, to be excited, for it to be successful and to prove that I did it right. »

Maison Gainsbourg, 5, bis rue de Verneuil, 75007 Paris. Buy tickets at maisongainsbourg.fr