that day she met Elizabeth II

She was sometimes nicknamed “the most Parisian of English women”. Jane Birkin, who died on Sunday July 16 at the age of 76, had the opportunity to meet many celebrities – and, sometimes, to share their lives. On several occasions, the mother of Kate Barry, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon even met the former Queen of England, Elizabeth II. In September 2022, the JDD had unearthed a photo of the singer dating from March 22, 1982. We saw her shake hands with the sovereignwith a frank smile, on the occasion of the preview of the film Murder in the sun. She held one of the title roles in Guy Hamilton’s feature film, adapted from a novel by Agatha Christie. Four years earlier, in 1978, Jane Birkin had also met the sovereign during the presentation of another film based on a novel by the famous writer, Death on the Nile. In 2022, she also indicated in an interview with Parisian to have crossed paths with the Queen again “during the centenary of the Entente cordiale France-England, in 2004.”

But it is in the childhood of the artist that we find traces of his very first meeting with the mother of Charles III. Jane Birkin was 8 years old on July 6, 1955, when Queen Elizabeth II came to visit the lace factory of her uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel Birkin, in Nottingham. A meeting which was explained, according to her, by the “connections” between his family and British royaltyas she described to Citizen K magazine in 2004: “My godmother was Winston Churchill’s daughter and my godfather, the greatest fashion designer in London. My father knew Churchill through his family. He came from a half-aristocratic, half-lace family. Gold, the Queen of England’s thing was to visit rather boring places, especially the lace factories.” It was following a combination of circumstances that little Jane was presented to the Queen: “So they put me there because my uncle had no children. I was the only girl who could present a bouquet to the Queen.”

“A faultless”

These meetings with the sovereign marked the singer, who said to herself particularly touched by his deathin September 2022. She hailed her “sense of humor” and wished to pay tribute to him in the columns of the Parisian : “In difficult times, like the Covid, she always knew how to find the words to reassure us. She also knew with the Commonwealth to care about people.” Before concluding : “Actually, she did a faultless.”

Journalist

Passionate about writing, Floréane is interested in a wide variety of subjects. When she’s not writing about current events, the environment or gender issues, she takes refuge under a blanket…