"Ne me quitte pas"

It has been said that it was in this modest bar, “Au Rêve”, on the northern slopes of Montmartre that Jacques Brel wrote one of his most famous songs, “Ne me quitte pas” (Don’t leave me, "If you go away"). He observed the apartment of the young lady Suzanne Gabriello, just in front, on the other side of the little square. (Actually, it seems that he was the one who left her and Brel declared also that “this is not a love song, but a song about the cowardice of men”. )

The song was first registered in 1959. This video shows Jacques singing it at his last performance in Paris at “L’Olympia” in 1966.

Suzanne was an actress and singer, mostly comic, parodying. She was born in 1932 and died in 1992. She’s buried in the Saint Vincent Cemetery, just around the corner. Jacques was born in 1929 and died in 1978. His grave is far away, at one of the Marquesas Islands, where he spent the last years of his life, sick and half retired.

The song has been performed by a number of artists. Here is the Nina Simone version.

... and here are some links to English, German, French versions by Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Shirley Bassey, Julio Eglesias, Sting, Ray Charles, Marlene Dietrich, Celine Dion...


I have already made a post about the small Saint Vincent cemetery. As we can see on the below map it’s situated close to the Montmartre vineyard (see previous posts) and the cabaret "Lapin Agile" (see previous post); we can see the roof behind the wall and the tomb of Maurice Utrillo, who painted the cabaret a number of times.