Oh my⊠she sang âour songâ⊠so named as it was on all the jukeboxes and radios⊠when we youngsters headed across the Channel on our honeymoon⊠
R.I.P.
They played Jâtaime on radio 2 the other week and laughed how it was going to corrupt the nation so the BBC banned it.
Oh the irony.
what plonkers they are ⊠
Very sad, she and her family in various forms were good friends of my parents.
Not my choice in musical terms but she has outlasted many others who just disappeared after a few years. I had never heard of her until I came to live in France and read about her.
Whatâs interesting is that her death is all over French news, and comparatively very minimal cover in UK
As I said, had never heard of her when living in the UK, like Johnny, its a french thing and love affair for many who grew up in that generation which is a bit before me.
I thought there might be a farewell thread - Birkin was superb, perhaps the most famous or best immigrant to âsurvive Franceâ? I salute her! And saddened.
I thought she was famous in the UK too - we all knew that song, a thousand sensual reminisces from our teenage years⊠and beyond⊠The Vatican heavily criticised the song, so there you go, it must be good.
I read the ob. in the Guardian yesterday which paid good tribute and reminded us of her great works, music and film, not just âthe songâ.
I wonder how many covers of âthe songâ there are?
It was all over the BBC homepage, and is still on the âworldâ news page now.
She was only relatively briefly a star in Britain, and by the time I was old enough to notice in the 1970s, had already faded from view. Perhaps it was combining acting with singing, French songs never getting much traction in th UK except for novelty value/sexiness.
For a long time after my arrival in France(in common with a lot of other English women in France at the time I suspect) I was told I had Jane Birkinâs English accent or even worse that I was trying to make my accent like hers)I had only vaguely heard of her at the time but when I saw an interview with her(when she was still young)replayed on French TV I was shocked at how good her French was(well to me anyway)and I can usually detect English accents from my compatriots. I think she may have exagerated the accent a tad.
My accent remains stubbornly Anglo Saxon .
Itâs curious isnât it, accent. I do agree about the exaggeration, eg Charlotte Ramplingâs French accent is much better.
Seems very young to have gone.
Iâve noticed that our English friendsâ regional accents come through when they speak French, likewise our many Dutch friends. A long time ago I had a Marseillaise friend who told me that when the English speak in French they sound like their mouths are full of that âhorrible mashed potatoâ.
So, God only knows what my mongrel English accent sounds like to the French. Often when I order from a butcher on the market, whom Iâve been using for eleven years, heâll do that funny little puzzled facial gesture where they twist their mouth and raise one eyebrow above the other, which usually means I have to say exactly the same thing again, but this time pronouncing the last letter on each word in order to be understood in Occitanie. Maybe heâs just winding me up!
<< Je voudrais des rillettes SVP. >>
SilenceâŠ
Second attemptâŠ
<<Des rillé-tez >>
<<Ah! >>
Meanwhile my wife, whose French conversation is far ahead of mine (unlike in writing he added stubbornly) has two wholly different conversational personalities according to whether sheâs on the phone in Afrikaans or French. On French phone calls, sheâs very chatty to people she often barely knows and throws in all sorts of phrases and idioms that I think are suspect, whereas in Afrikaans she slips in and out of Afrikaans into English slang and back again in virtually every sentence.
One thingâs for sure, neither of us are ever likely to be taken for native French speakers, or even French writers. Iâve written a few exhibition catalogue essays in French and am well aware that stylistically theyâre very different to anything local that Iâve read.