One of the most famous musicians of all time is, of course, Serge Gainsbourg. But for non-native French listeners, it may be difficult to fully appreciate his music. Over the course of his career, Gainsbourg wrote some 550 songs…the lyrics of which often delve into puns and other forms of word play. Indeed, upon his death in 1991, then-president François Mitterand stated, “Notre Baudelaire, notre Apollinaire… Il a élevé la chanson au rang de l’art.” (Our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire … He elevated song to the level of art.)

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One of Gainsbourg’s most famous songs—and perhaps one of France’s most beloved songs—is “Le poinçonneur des Lilas.” What’s un poinçonneur, you may ask? Un poinçonneur is a ticket-puncher, or someone who would punch (poinçonner) train or subway tickets to validate (válider) them. Nowadays, there’s usually a machine that does this, of course. But, when the song was written in 1958, it was common to see les poinçonneur in subway stations (les stations de metro) and in train stations (les gares). 

As Gainsbourg himself said, “« Le poinçonneur des Lilas » c’est le poinçonneur de la Porte-Dauphine. J’ai bavardé avec cet employé du métro avant d’écrire ma chanson. Je lui ai demandé ce qu’il espérait, il m’a répondu : « Remonter à la surface le plus tôt possible ».
Voilà, c’était la phrase-clé qui m’a amené à écrire le Poinçonneur.” (The Lilas Ticket-Puncher, it’s about the ticket-puncher of the Porte-Dauphine metro. I asked him what he hoped for, and he answered: “Go back up to the surface as early as possible.” And it was that key phrase that brought me to write the song.”)

You can read les paroles de la chanson below:

Watch a young Serge Gainsbourg sing this song in 1959 below:

Next week, we’ll look more into the lyrics and examine some of the word play Gainsbourg used throughout his musical career.