Time for farewells: loved ones and hundreds of admirers of Françoise Hardy mourned on Thursday June 20 at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris the icon of song, who died at the age of 80.
Jacques Dutronc, the husband of Françoise Hardy from whom she had been separated for years, and their son Thomas Dutronc were surrounded by the singer’s artistic family, who did not want a religious ceremony. They arrived on site shortly before 3 p.m.
A whole generation of French song was there: Julien Clerc, Laurent Voulzy, Dave, as well as Sheila and Salvatore Adamo, particularly applauded as they entered the dome of the Père-Lachaise crematorium. As well as the director François Ozon, who used several of his songs in his films, and the faithful Etienne Daho.
Nicolas and Carla Sarkozy also made the trip, as did the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and Brigitte Macron, who was booed, noted an AFP journalist.
A half-hour ceremony
The half-hour ceremony took place in privacy. The singer’s greatest songs resounded in the square, where hundreds of admirers had gathered, murmuring the words of these hits which rocked much more than their adolescence, with reddened eyes.
“And if I leave before you”, “The time of love”, “So many beautiful things”, were broadcast. It was on “Personal message” (“if you ever believe that you love me…”) that the light wooden coffin then left the scene.
“She marked our lives, from the 1960s to today,” Jean-Charles, a 70-year-old Parisian retiree, dressed in a Basque beret, told AFP in the crowd of admirers. “With his texts, we could take the time to settle down and live.”
“She represents all of my youth, she was a discreet personality, far from the buzz, a very beautiful woman compared to the bimbos of today,” says Houria, a 71-year-old Parisian.
Buried in Corsica?
Annie was not born in 1962 when “All the Boys and Girls” was released, but came to pay tribute to the one who reminds her of her mother.
“I also came for the whole Dutronc family,” adds this civil servant, who works night shift and made the detour before taking up her post.
It was Thomas Dutronc who announced the death of the yéyé idol on the evening of June 11 on social networks. Under a photo of him and his mother, he wrote a sober “Mom is gone”.
Two days later, he returned to the stage during a concert in Pas-de-Calais. “In England, we say: “Elephant in the room” (editor’s note: the huge subject we avoid talking about). My “elephant in the room” is my mother’s departure to other skies,” he said, moved.
The singer had expressed the wish to be buried in Corsica, more precisely in Monticello, where Jacques Dutronc lives. However, no request for urn burial on private property has been received, the Haute-Corse prefecture said on Thursday, questioned by AFP.
Françoise Hardy had been fighting the disease for many years. Cancer appeared in his life in 2004, taking several forms and causing him an ordeal.
The artist thus confided to “Paris Match” in 2023 that she wanted to “leave soon and quickly, without too many challenges”. She also spoke out for the right to die with dignity.
The artist, with his assumed melancholy, conquered the Anglo-Saxon public in the 1960s, catching the eye of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan.
She was also the only Frenchwoman in the ranking of the 200 best singers of all time by the American magazine “Rolling Stone” in 2023.
(afp)
