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 Pallbearers carried Aznavour's coffin into the courtyard at Les
Invalides military museum in Paris, where Napoleon is buried, to
the sound of haunting music played from a duduk, an oboe-like
wind instrument native to Armenia.
The singer-songwriter passed away this week at 94.
"In France, poets never die," French President Emmanuel Macron
said, standing before the coffin draped in France's
blue-white-and-red flag. Alongside the casket lay a wreath in
the colors of Armenia.
Macron is expected to travel to Armenia next week on an official
visit that Aznavour had hoped to take part in.
"Armenians of all countries today, I am thinking of you," Macron
said. "He was supposed to be one of us next week in Yerevan, his
absence will leave a giant void."
Celebrities including the now-frail actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and
Macron's two predecessors attended the ceremony under clear blue
skies.
Aznavour, whose global reach was enhanced by his ability to sing
in more than half a dozen languages, died at his villa in
Mouries, a village in the southern French Alpilles region, in
the night of last Sunday to Monday.
Among his best-known songs - he sold upwards of 100 million
records - were “"Hier Encore" (Yesterday When I Was Young),
“"Apres l'Amour" (After Love) and “"La Boheme". Others of
anthem-status included "She" and "Formidable".
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Aznavour was born in Paris on May 22, 1924, to Armenian parents. His
birth name was Shahnour Aznavourian.
He grew up on the Left Bank of Paris and began performing at the age
of nine. His first public performances were at Armenian gatherings
where his father and older sister Aida sang while he danced.
He broke from the shadows penning songs for Edith Piaf in the years
after World War Two, and later brought rapt audiences to their feet
at venues as far away as New York's Carnegie Hall.
Macron embraced and exchanged words with Aznavour's widow Ulla and
relatives before standing side-by-side with Armenian leaders for a
ceremony that began with an army band rendition of Armenia's
national anthem, then France's.
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pachinyan paid tribute to the artist
too, saying: "Charles Aznavour is the man who pitched the flag of
Armenia on the roof of the world."
(Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Peter Graff and Richard Lough)
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