In 1967, the day after his farewell to singing, Jacques Brel decided to rent a pied-à-terre in Paris. He knows that he will have to spend several months a year there, to rehearse and perform The Man of La Mancha, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, then to work on new projects, in particular for the cinema. Charley Marouani, his manager and friend, found him the ideal apartment in the 14th arrondissement: a duplex on the 12th and top floor of a block of “Le Méridien” buildings. Brel accesses it via 32 rue Darreau, but there is another entrance, at 9 rue Émile Dubois, through which another famous tenant, Georges Brassens, passes daily. Since the death of her husband, Jeanne has become unmanageable. With death in his soul, he decided to leave Impasse Florimont and, while waiting to find the house of his dreams in the same neighborhood, he moved into a duplex on the 12th floor, also in the heart of the same wing of the Meridian.

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The reunion is fraternal. Brel knows what he owes to Brassens. In 1953, from Brussels, he threw a bottle into the sea by sending one of the 200 copies of his first 45 rpm to Jacques Canetti, director of the Trois Baudets, a theater open to young talents. Another beginner, on display in this room, listened to it: Georges Brassens. “This guy is talented, you should hire him!” he told Canetti. Brel thus found himself on the bill, every evening, for four songs, to the virtual indifference of the public. Brassens advised him not to get demoralized, to persist: it would work out in the end! Loving to give nicknames to his friends, he named him “L’Abbé Brel”, because the sweater he wore on stage looked like a chasuble. In the evening when they met in a nearby café, Brassens traditionally asked him: “What do you want? A Chartreuse or a Bénédictine?

Other, even more alcoholic drinks sit on the table in Brassens’ living room, that evening in 1967 when he invites Gibraltar to dinner, his secretary, the novelist René Fallet, faithful since the early days, and his neighbor, Jacques Brel, with whom he regularly plays belote in a nearby café. There is also Raymond Peynet, the designer of Les Amoureux, who lives on the same floor. Around midnight, there was nothing left to drink and Brel suggested that his friends go to his house where he had a few bottles in reserve. The proposal is adopted unanimously. Two hours later, after tasting alcohols that he considers marvelous, Brassens collapses and falls asleep. Brel and Gibraltar, still conscious, decide to take him home and put him in his bed. The problem is its weight: 90 kilos. By holding him by the hands and feet, they end up achieving it, not without difficulty. The moment they finally arrive in his room, Brassens wakes up and says, as if nothing had happened, “I would like a little one!”

Also read: Brassens’ personal collection: a war between his family and friends

Some time later, on January 6, 1969 to be exact, it was the RTL listeners who were going to drink in their words. A young production assistant, François-René Cristiani, created a performance: bringing together Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré around the same microphone. A friendly debate lasting more than an hour on French song was recorded at 38 rue Saint-Placide, in the living room of Cristiani’s in-laws. In a cloud of smoke from Brassens’ pipe and the cigarettes of the other two, the trio spoke of love, friendship, the passing of time, the difficulty bordering on torture that writing a song, and even death. They also considered, very seriously, the possibility of a short series of joint concerts. The idea unfortunately never came to fruition. We missed a unique moment. Like When we only have love, they would have given a lot to share.