Paris (AFP)

His collection of vinyls is still there, like his bric-a-brac of handyman: the apartment of Boris Vian, remained intact behind the Moulin Rouge in Paris, was opened to the press Thursday to announce the festivities of the centenary of his birth in 2020.

"The neighbor is Jacques Prévert, the owner is the Moulin Rouge", describes Nicole Bertolt, moved to tears, to present this thirty square meters, on the floor of 6 bis of the city Véron, where the author of "I'll spit on your graves" and "The Heart-tear" lived from 1953 to 1959, the date of his death.

The director of heritage and attorney for the hand-to-hand genius allowed an exceptional visit to the site to punctuate his press conference revealing the events of 2020, gathered under the slogan "Vian, always living".

For the general public, and only on request by mail to Mrs. Bertolt - many requests, few elected - it will be necessary to wait for Saturday, November 16th and 23rd for a commented discovery.

An exit at the back of the Théâtre Ouvert, 4 bis Cité Véron, provides access to a narrow staircase. Past the front door, the emotion hugs the visitor. The large office where he worked is surrounded by shelves made by his hands. Because he does not roll on the gold and the place is empty when he settles with his second wife Ursula in these former lodges of the Moulin Rouge.

The walls are still hidden today by hundreds of books, dictionaries, surrealist paintings and instruments, like this piano-bastringue or lyre-guitar.

- Hardware" -

Direction "Hardware". It is a small room containing hammers, nails and other objects recovered from right to left: pieces of bicycle chains, lids of scrap boxes hang here and there.

We do not stay long, we must quickly go out and close the door so that "the original smell remains" as Ms. Bertolt wants. To take the air, go to the terrace. The view is exceptional. On the right, the apartment of Jacques Prévert - whose shutters are fired on Thursday, forbidding every curious sight inside - and on the left, the dome of the dome of the Open Theater (whose interior is made of inverted bowls and gilded with gold).

And in front of ... the Moulin Rouge, "seen from behind, as we never see", with its wings on the other side, as was exposed a little before Nicole Bertolt.

Back inside, in the living room. We stop in front of the 78 laps. Jazz dominates with Oscar Peterson, Count Basie and other Louis Armstrong series. But while ogling a little beside, it is a disc of Fernand Raynaud which appears.

- Figurines of Colin and Chloe -

On the ceiling, an inverted chessboard, placed there by Mrs. Bertolt, because the writer-musician-director loved to play there. Objects attract the eye. Like these two little metal-magnet figurines, a little boy and a little girl. They represent Colin and Chloe, characters from "L'Ecume des jours" and are on the cover of the pocket edition. "Boris has never set foot in the United States, it was Ursula, who was a dancer, who had brought him from there," we are blown away.

A picture with small metal boxes glued on, openings to the visitor, challenges. "He had been sick of the heart since he was a teenager, he was constantly taking pills for that, he stuck them to the wall", we are told.

"He told my father, in 1954, he would not live beyond 40 years," told AFP Francoise Canetti recently, whose famous producer father pushed Vian to sing on stage. He died in 1959 from a heart attack at 39 years old.

Hence an overflowing creativity, which the apartment testifies. We stop in front of a boat model born of his imagination, but the visit is limited in time, other people are waiting in the excitement at the foot of the stairs. We must leave.

© 2019 AFP