Charles Trenet and Narbonne

Born in 1913 in Narbonne, Charles Trenet spoke of his town, of the Aude département, and of the Catalan countrside, in many of his songs. The “crazy singer” left nearly 900 songs in a career lasting 60 years, including fifteen or so sumptuous classics that have become standards across the globe.

From La Mer, which he wrote in fifteen minutes on the train between Montpellier and Narbonne, to The Soul of Poets and Blue Flower, Charles Trenet fulfilled within the century, and with verve and imagination, his role as the popular poet. Charles Trenet and Narbonne lived out 87 years of tenderness, with the artist and the town linked by inspiration and poetry. The inhabitants of the old capital of Septimanie, Narbonne, well remember his familiar figure, one that they respected and admired to the end.

In homage to Trenet, the house where he was born, and where he lived with his mother for many years, was opened to the public on the 4th of November 2000. Accompanied by a sound-track of the best-known songs of the « crazy singer », the visitor can wander through the different rooms and levels of the house, all preserved as Trenet would have lived in them through the years. The mixture of colours dates the style, and the souvenirs, photographs, drawings, and verses left lying on a table all contribute as a reminder of a poet who left his mark on the last century.

Mairie de Narbonne
Tel : 33 ( 0)4 68 65 15 60