Anglo-French star Jane Birkin gets name on bridge over Paris canal
Birkin's daughters, singer Lou Doillon and actor and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, were among the guests who attended the ceremony for their mother, who died in 2023 at the age of 76.
"The Jane Birkin footbridge -- it's poetic," said Gainsbourgh, her voice thick with emotion. "She would have loved it so much."
The Jane Birkin Footbridge spans the Canal Saint Martin in Paris's 10th arrondissement, or district.
"It could be the bridge that connected her to England and brought her hurrying back to France, her adopted country," Gainsbourg told those gathered for the ceremony.
"This morning my son asked me if my mother was still dead," said Doillon. "So I told him, 'Yes, but today she's becoming a bridge,' -- and it's great to be able to say that.
"The tranquility, the silence and the reverence of the cemetery really didn't suit her," she added.
Gainsbourg, Doillon and Birkin's grandson Roman de Kermadec together unveiled the bridge's new name plate, which reads: "Jane Birkin Footbridge (1946-2023) singer, actor, director".
Birkin came to Paris from London in the 1960s. Her duet with Serge Gainsbourg, "Je t'aime... moi non plus," became a massive hit, the first of several.
In cinema, she appeared in films including Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 classic "Blowup".
She subsequently worked with a string of major directors, including Agnes Varda and Bertrand Tavernier.