France’s first lady Brigitte Macron & singer Vanessa Paradis were among the high-profile attendees.
Friends, family and fans are bidding farewell to Jane Birkin, who died on July 16 at 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 Daily reported.
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.
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, per WWD. “I can already see the void she has left in us. She is my mother, she is our mother.”
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.”
