Jane Birkin’s daughters Lou Doillon and Charlotte Gainsbourgwalk behind her coffin at her funeral in Paris, France on July 24, 2023.Photo:JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty
JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty
Friends, family and fans are bidding farewell to Jane Birkin, whodied on July 16at age 76.
On Monday, fans gathered around the streets of Paris’ Saint-Roch Church to join friends and family in honoring the late singer and actress. Birkin’s daughters Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon carried their mother’s coffin on their shoulders up the steps of the building,Women’s Wear Dailyreported.
As they carried the coffin, Birkin’s 1983 song “Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve” (“Running away from happiness lest it run away”) played.
Jane Birkin’s funeral on July 24, 2023 in Paris, France.Sipa via AP Images
Sipa via AP Images
During the service, Gainsbourg, 52, gave a short speech in which she choked up.
“I see all your souls in pain without her,” she said, perWWD. “I can already see the void she has left in us. She is my mother, she is our mother.”
Jane Birkin’s daughters Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon.AP Photo/Thomas Padilla
AP Photo/Thomas Padilla
Meanwhile, Doillon shared several memories and anecdotes about her mother with the audience.
“Thank you for all these adventures, thank you for not having been ordinary, reasonable or docile. The world of tomorrow, very peaceful and reasoned, it already upsets me,” Doillon, 40, said.
Fans watched the ceremony on a large screen outside the church and Birkin’s songs played outside before it began. They also held banners reading “Jane Forever” and “Thank you Jane Birkin.”
Brigitte Macron was among the mourners.Sipa via AP Images
France’s first lady Brigitte Macron and minister of culture Rima Abdul Malak were among the high-profile attendees. Film star Catherine Deneuve and singer Vanessa Paradis were also in attendance.
As the ceremony came to an end, the audience assembled outside the church broke into song and a loud applause. Birkin was moved to the cemetery of Montparnasse in the south of Paris, where she will be buried next to ex Serge Gainsbourg and her daughter Kate Barry, who died in 2013 at age 46.
The beloved actress’ cause of death is not yet known but, according toABC News, the actress has been plagued with health issues in recent years — including a stroke in 2021 and a broken shoulder blade earlier this year — which have kept her from performing and appearing publicly.
Vanessa Paradis was among the mourners.AP Photo/Thomas Padilla
French president Emmanuel Macron praised the actress in atribute on Twitterfollowing her death, writing, “Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon.”
He continued, “A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us.”
source: people.com
