“Thank you life !” : Line Renaud shares with “Femme Actuelle” exclusive extracts from her latest book: Femme Actuelle Le MAG

At 95 years old and while she celebrates 80 years of career this yearLine Renaud gives us here a delicious spiritual testament. thank you life will be her last book at the same time as her last letter to the public, this public that she considers like her family. Through lively and modern words, imbued with joy, tenderness and wisdom, we discover the artist but even more the woman, the citizen and the activist. A hymn to life which, as if by miracle, sweeps away the fear of growing old and dying!

“My very dear friends,

I address this letter to you, my last letter. To you who over all this time have become my family at heart, to you who have made my childhood dream my reality as a woman. I’m ninety-five, ninety-six in a few months, it’s unheard of, I don’t believe it myself… Without me paying attention, the counter of years seems to have gone crazy and Heaven is now getting closer. So yes, I am writing this letter to tell you my life secrets, to once again share with you a few bursts of laughter and whisper in your ear the recipe for my magic potion, that of optimism and freedom, longevity and love. To thank life for giving me so much.

My letter is the collection of thoughts that I am keen to leave as a legacy. She won’t be sad, I promise you… I’m much too happy by nature! No, it is a message of hope and my ode to life. I want it to be a caress and a proof of love, like a last kiss that we give on a station platform as the train moves away. Because one day you have to go and just be ready for it. I find myself at this moment of existence (…)

“I have gotten into the habit of saying that a birthday is not less time but rather more happiness…”

Did I tell you growing old is horrible? I have the audacity to smile while writing it! Yes, be sure that this is truly the worst adventure of our existence, “a shipwreck”, as they said. General de Gaulle ; and yet it is also the greatest gift given to us. A gift indeed because growing old means that we have been given the gift of living a long time. Until my last breath, I will remain haunted by what I saw in the 1980s, when AIDS hit hard on young people who were just waiting to sink their teeth into life. I see again these faces of men in the prime of life whose life was taken away, it was incredibly violent! (…) Their desperate and pleading looks, their tears of terror have never really left me; and not for a moment do I forget that my old age is an immense opportunity compared to their youth which was so violently confiscated. So, I am not afraid of my age, nor of the birthdays that set the pace. And too bad if the candles now cost more than the cake! I see friends who hide at the mere thought of having to blow them away, for me it’s quite the opposite, I celebrate each birthday with relish, twice, three times, even four (…) I celebrate it like we celebrate the life. I have gotten into the habit of saying that a birthday is not less time but rather more happiness. The passage of time is inevitable, so you might as well see the glass half full! What do you want, it’s in my nature, rather than feeling sorry for a gray and rainy sky, I prefer to rejoice that the sun will return soon. Ultimately, doesn’t life take on the color of how we look at it? Mine is absolutely blue rather than gray. And isn’t blue the color of peace and serenity? (…)

(…) One thing is certain : everyone is the master of their own story, it is you and you alone who hold the pen and write the novel of your life. There is nothing wrong with being driven by great ambition, with wanting to exist loud and clear, as long as you don’t crush others in your path. As a child, (…) I kept repeating that something must exist elsewhere, as if a wall separated me from a greater and more fascinating reality, from a paradise to be discovered. If we were to unearth the secret of success, I believe that it would be in curiosity that we would have to look for it. “Curiosity : tendency which leads to learning, to knowing new or hidden things”, says the dictionary. Everything is there: learning, knowledge, novelty. We cannot succeed in life, and in life, without being hungry for discoveries and encounters, greedy for new horizons. Do you know what I did as a child when I saw barges sailing on the Lys? I asked for an invitation which I was never refused and I embarked happily and without fear for the duration of a lock. It was already the promise of a journey (…) Going from point A to point B was an obsession for me and since then, I think that immobility has always terrified me, nothing beats movement. Spin a coin on its edge, if it stops it falls. I never wanted to fall. (…)

“In every old person, there is a young person who wonders what happened (…) In fact, it’s very simple, it’s life that has passed…”

Nothing seems more moving to me than the meeting of generations. I remember a television report where we saw nursery school children having their meal every midday in a retirement home, with the residents. The exchanges were overwhelming! (…) The candor of some has met the wisdom of others and numerous activities bring together young and old: motor skills exercises, gentle gymnastics, painting and plastic arts workshops (…) I believe so much in these bridges. Life is a perfect loop, it is good that its two ends can meet in total harmony. To hear and understand each other. After all, aren’t we all in this together? Old age doesn’t just happen to others: an old person was once young and a young person is an old person in the making. There is no greater justice in this world. A very amusing joke comes to mind: “In every old person, there is a young person who wonders what happened.” I love this sentence… Yes, I confirm, when I see myself today, I really wonder what happened. In fact, it’s very simple, it’s life that is past, and a few decades with it (…)

“ Loulou and I loved each other well beyond love. When, once the fires of passion have been extinguished, once the body and desire have become silent, all that remains is the nectar of love. »

My gaze falls mechanically on this photograph enclosed in its silver frame, placed on a console, facing me. Loulou, still young, his pearly smile, his laughing eye, me very close to him, younger still, admiring, loving and, between us, like an extension of Loulou, his guitar whose swing has brought us together so many times fifty for years, in the city and on stage. If I had to caption this photo, I would write: “Absolute love”. Love is the greatest adventure of life. Its engine. Traveling together… I never imagined going through life differently. Have you ever seen a bird flying alone in the sky? No never ! The road for two is well beyond the state of love or sexual attachment, it is an intimacy, a trust, a grace that so few people on our path can offer us. Traveling together means laughing twice as much and crying half as much, halving the pain and infinitely multiplying the joys. The two-person journey has given me more joy and strength than anything else in life, but every person who has this chance must also realize how rare this miracle is. Twenty-nine years since Loulou left and I must admit that I often feel nostalgia for this road together. It’s the only nostalgia I allow myself… My God, what a beautiful trip we’ve had; nothing will have been more cruel than his end without hope of return. I usually say that Loulou and I loved each other well beyond love. When, once the fires of passion have been extinguished, once the body and desire have become silent, all that remains is the nectar of love, its most concentrated version. And my God, how beautiful and sweet it is to get there! The flames of passion have devoured you, sometimes a little damaged, while this long-term love is a balm that protects you from everything, embraces you and rocks you. Not a single evening, for fifty years, did Loulou and I go to sleep without holding hands. All the annoyances dissolved at nightfall and each morning opened with a blank page that we had so much pleasure writing together.

Supporting science above all thanks to “Line Renaud-Loulou Gasté Endowment Donation Fund”

Since the beginning of its commitment to the fight against AIDS in 1984, Line has the greatest admiration for researchers. “In all humility, in the secrecy of their laboratories, they are the guardians of our lives, true heroes”, she confides. An interest that pushed her in 2019 to create the “Line Renaud-Loulou Gasté Endowment Fund”. So every fall she gives 60,000 euros to a researcher as well as 20,000 euros to Sidaction, the association she created with Pierre Bergé in 1994. This year, it is Professor Karine Clément who was endowed for her very innovative solutions on obesity. The fund also supports the “Handichien” association by financing the training of a dog each year which will ease the daily life of a person with a disability. Line wants to ensure that upon his death, the sale of his property extends the multiple actions of his Fund.