Jane Birkin c1973

Au milieu des vagues
Accroupie les yeux vagues
La baigneuse de Brighton
A dans son derrière,
Pliées en zigzag,
Des photos quelques vagues
Souvenirs de Brighton
Et du bord de mer

[Hunched in the breakers, eyes a blur, the Brighton bather keeps concertina’d in her butt pocket, blurry photos, memories of Brighton, of the beach.]

Royal Pavillion
The Lanes and The Old Steine,
Adelaide Crescent and Rottingdean
Black Rock Railway,
The Palace Pier
Kemp Town,
Regency Crescent
And Whitehawk Down

Une écriture vague
Au-dessous du tampon
D’ la poste de Brighton
Me dit que c’est lui
Mais quoi je divague
Non non c’est pas d’ la blague
Je lis : Salut pauvre conne
Adieu c’est fini

[Handwriting blurred beneath a Brighton postmark tells me it’s him.  It’s a blur. No! No! He’s not kidding.  All I can see is: “Bye, poor little mug.  It’s over”]

Watch the video of  the song written and composed by Serge Gainsbourg.  La Baigneuse de Brighton was released in 1973.  It appeared on Di Doo Dah, Birkin’s first album on which she performed without Gainsbourg.

La Course à l’échalote 1975

Two years later, London-born Birkin was back in Brighton filming La Course à l’échalote [The Wild Goose Chase] with Pierre Richard.  The film has not left a deep impression on the cinema-loving public either France or in Brighton.

Many thanks to Stephen Dean of Reelstreets for the still from La Course à l’échalote.