France Says Adieu to Jane Birkin, a Beloved Cultural Adoptee

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Jane Birkin at the Deauville Film Festival in 1985/Roland Godefroy/Creative Commons 3.0 license

Dear Subscribers,

When I learned of the sudden death of Jane Birkin, a musician, actor, performer and style icon who rose to fame in the 1960s crooning the bawdy, widely-banned duet “Je t’aime… moi non plus” with then-partner Serge Gainsbourg, it was through a story in French daily paper Le Monde (read the English version of the obituary here).

It seemed entirely fitting that Birkin, who was 76 and had reportedly suffered from several health problems over the past few years, would be most deeply and immediately mourned in France.

Born in London, she had made her primary home in Paris for decades. She became a French citizen after some time there. And in France, she’s long been celebrated for her “charmante” English accent and persona, myriad talents as a performer, and effortless, laid-back style mixed with slight reserve: so much so that she’s been associated with what the French often view as the “best” qualities of les anglais.

This is no easy feat, in a country where (I kid not) it’s not unusual to see advertisements for English biscuits whose slogans read “C’est anglais, mais c’est bon!” (It’s English, but it’s good!”) You might even argue that Birkin, alongside people like fellow French adoptee and actor Kristin Scott Thomas, made a powerful ambassador for British culture.