Chère Françoise,

Comment te dire adieu? (How to say goodbye to you?) when I don’t want to. I’m writing this message hoping some heavenly wind will carry it to you like the mistral that blows into the northern Mediterranean. It may seem like this letter is being written a little too late, but I believe artists never die. You have entered another plane, the afterlife where I imagine you in the paradis blanc with the greatest artists of all time. However, your soul and essence will live on in your beautiful music.

I don’t have enough words in neither English nor French to tell you how much you mean to me. You changed my life and saved me from the depths of darkness and pulled me out of the abyss of solitude when I often found myself lying there. Your songs were the only melodies that gave me a reason to keep going, I completely drowned myself in the beauty of the French language, in your gorgeous voice, in the beauty of your presence, your aura and your songwriting brilliance. I lost myself completely in the world of the 60s, 70s.

I used to be the girl who was perpetually sad until I was 19 and then everything changed when I found your music and it gave me a reason to look forward to the next day. The first 6 months of having found your music were just paradise, I don’t remember much else I just remember reading every French text I could, practicing my middle school French grammar, reading all of your lyrics in French then translating them and memorizing them and that is how I learnt all of your songs.

Not just your songs but what is in my opinion one of the most beautiful languages in the world. To think I struggled in school with French exams for years and you taught me enough French in 6 months to not only understand and sing your songs but to write my own songs in French. It was never even a goal of mine. To write a poetry book in French because it is so outlandish but I did it. Thanks to you.

The first song I ever heard by you was Message Personnel (1973). I was listening to something random and Youtube recommended you it has to be fate and auto-played the chanson while I was alone in my room in a foreign country away from home, lonely and sad, insecure and unhappy in gloomy London.

With candles lit in the room I was just feeling really out of place in this world. I was happy to be in a new place, but I still didn’t have anyone who understood how I felt. Uncomfortable in my own skin I was exhausted being myself.

Then your music started playing and I only understood about 50% but your voice was angelic, melodious and soothing so in that moment language didn’t matter. Music was the universal language. Needless to say I listened to the song on repeat all night then looked online for translations and fell more in love with you and from then on it was a daily mission to consume your discography as though someone was gonna take it away from me.

To this day I really feel like my personal diaries ended up in 1960s Paris and for some reason were worded in French and sung by a beautiful angel that is how much you get me. How else could you write exactly how I feel? I’m certain that I’m not the only one who feels this way your melancholic atmospheric sentimental ballads enchanted a nation, a world and touched so many people’s hearts. I bet most everyone feels like you understand them better than they understand themselves but even though we have never met and will never meet you have been an important part of my life and will continue to be an important part of my life. Every season I experience is accompanied by a Françoise song, La fin de l’été, Rendez-vous d’automne, Song of Winter, every moment of the day too Le premier bonheur du jour, Ce soir, La nuit est sur la ville, every vacation, every birthday, and really if I’m honest everyday.

I have suffered from anxiety most of my life and nothing could calm me down except for the only thing that can- La Question (1971) my favourite album under the sun. This album is a masterpiece, no piece of music means more to me than these tracks. Tracks like Si mi Caballero, Doigts, Mer, Même sous la pluie, Rêve, Viens. These songs showed me what it meant to be calm, in tune with the present moment and in love with life and for that I will be eternally grateful to you Françoise.

If I start quoting all of your songs one by one this will turn into a book. So, I will quote just one Contre vents et marées (2000)

Tu dois juste avancer

Regarder sans tricher

La vérité

Suivre ta route

Coûte que coûte

Contre vents et marées

which translates to “you just have to keep moving forward, without cheating, follow your path, no matter the cost, against the winds and tides. “

Anytime I need to be reminded of what is really important in life Françoise is there in rain or sunshine.

In addition to being my music idol, and songwriting muse she is also my fashion icon of all time whether she was dressed in Paco Rabanne’s gorgeous metalic gold piece or Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, she was always chic, Someone that really didn’t have to try at all and gave Comme des Garçons their brand name. as Comme des Garçons is named after Hardy’s first song Tous les garçons et les filles…..

Françoise, I cannot imagine the pain you have had to endure, I cannot begin to understand the immense strength that you have and the grace you have always shown even in tough times and everything you have been through.

I know now that you are not in pain anymore and that you have returned to your vivacious, joyous self. I would like to remember you in this way. As the most amazing Yé-yé girl from Paris.

I have read your autobiography, Le désespoir des singes: et autres bagatelles (2008), your novel L’amour Fou (2012) and every article that I could find about you in French and in English, I learned that just like me you too believe in astrology and I’m certain you are a celestial entity now, a star in the vast universe exploring all of life’s greatest mysteries.

Françoise you will always be in every season, in every tide, in every flower, in every refrain. Je vous aime.

and lastly from me to you here are a few lines :

Tu seras toujours dans les gouttes de la pluie

dans la mélodie de la nuit

tu m’as enlevé mes ennuis

et j’ai tout appris

de toi.

Merci.

(You will always be in the drops of the rain/ in the melody of the night/you took away all my pain/ I learnt everything from you/ Thank You.)

-Anshudha Garimella

P.S. Repose en paix.