Listen to The French Connection ::  December 28, 2025

Bardot

DECEMBER 28, 2025 SALUT!

  • Boris Vian “J’Suis Snob”

REST IN PEACE, B.B.
“I gave my beauty and my youth to men, and now I am giving my wisdom and experience … the best of me, to animals.”

  • Brigitte Bardot “La Madrague” (1963)
  • Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg “Bonnie & Clyde” (Serge Gainsbourg) (1967)

POST-WAR CHANSON
Smoky cafés, cobblestone streets, and a deep longing for a pre-war idealized Paris

  • Léo Ferré “Noël” (1961)
  • Catherine Sauvage “Avec Le Temps”
  • Léo Ferré “Le Vampire” (Baudelaire)
  • Barbara “Göttingen” (Monique Andrée Serf)
  • Barbara “Les Voyages” (Monique Andrée Serf)
  • Barbara “Ne Me quitte Pas (Jacques Brel)
  • Jacques Brel “Quand on n’a que l’amour” (Brel)
  • George Brassens “La Prière” (Francis Jammes / Brassens)
  • George Brassens “Le Piere Noël et le Petit Fille” (Brassens)
  • Catherine Sauvage “Black Trombone” (Serge Gainsbourg)
  • Léo Ferré “Saint Germaine des Pres” (Ferré)

Source: The French Connection :: Playlist and replay – WRIU 90.3 FM

Jane Birkin: ‘Serge Gainsbourg was a provocateur with a wildly romantic soul’

In 2013, Jane Birkin, who died on Sunday, spoke with Le Monde about singer Serge Gainsbourg, who was her partner and wrote many songs for her.

After Serge Gainsbourg met you, in 1968, he never appeared alone in a photo. We know that actresses attract photographers, but did Gainsbourg become Mr. Birkin by your side?

No, it’s much more prosaic than that. I had just arrived from England. We were starting a life together. I think Serge simply wanted to introduce me to the French. Right from our first collaboration, he put me in the spotlight. On the cover of the album Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus, he preferred to show my face… with my big teeth! It was a very conscious decision. He wanted me to be associated with this success.

Later, when I took part in protests for abortion rights or against the death penalty, he was very concerned. It wasn’t a question of conviction. I knew his ideas. But showing up at these rallies, which were unpopular at the time, seemed risky to him. I had to be a star that was accepted by the French.

[ . . . ]

Continue reading at ourceLe Mondea: Jane Birkin: ‘Serge Gainsbourg was a provocateur with a wildly romantic soul’