Walk in Narbonne, in the footsteps of Charles Trenet

It’s in front of the medieval palace called “Archbishops” that I have an appointment with Christophe Cabrier, my guide. On the esplanade, he invites me to walk along a stretch of Via Domitia, a cobbled road that witnessed the creation of the city by the Romans in 118 BC. As a teenager, Trenet crossed this historic square every day to go to college. Turning our backs on this antiquity, we follow the Robine canal which cuts the city in two and span it via the footbridge of the boats to find us in the Halls. Inaugurated in 1901, this Baltard-style pavilion which houses 66 shops offering local products was voted the most beautiful market in France in 2022, a market that little Charles frequented with his grandmother.

After going up the canal, we turn left for a break Place des Quatre-Fontaines. In this place of life frequented by young people, the artist devoted himself to his first hobby: impressionist painting. Taking the via Aquitania which once linked Narbonne to Toulouse, then the rue de l’Hôtel-Dieu, here we are in the Saint Paul’s Basilica (12th-13th century). It was here that, on May 26, 1913, eight days after his birth, Charles was baptized. In the nave, visitors can admire a sculpted frog at the bottom of a stoup, and in the crypt, the remains of a 3rd century early Christian cemetery. Opposite is the hospital where, in 1917, the heart of Marie-Louise, Charles’s mother, went “boom” for Benno Vigny, a Hungarian war-wounded whom she never left. A “madness” bequeathed to his son who would later become the singing Fool. A screenwriter of silent films, Benno passed on artistic gifts to his son-in-law that made him the poet we know…

Braving the gusts of the Cers, a local wind that blows 270 days a year, we reach the railway footbridge built at the end of the 19th century. Charles used it every day, his birthplace being located just opposite –. Of this “old shack” with green shutters built by his maternal grandfather, a barrel maker, he said: “My other houses belong to me, but that of Narbonne is the only one to which I belong.” He composed some of his hits there. Today the public is immersed in the intimacy of the singer with the eternal hat thanks to objects that belonged to him, videos, soundtracks and drawings by Cabu. A six-track karaoke gives visitors the opportunity to sing along. You can also go to the last resting place of Charles Trenet, located two kilometers further, at the Cimetière de l’Ouest where his ashes were laid on February 26, 2001, after his disappearance. But those who prefer to keep the memory of the laughing face of the interpreter of There is joy conclude their walk with the monumental fresco painted in 1994 by the artist Jean Lafitte at the Trois-Ponts crossroads, opposite the media library. Two song titles by Charles Trenet are attached: Faithful, and To Narbonne, my friend!