Patrick Bougis took the name Valerio after a meeting with Salvador Dalí that decided his life. Success came, but far from home: his South American tours played to full houses, Casablanca feted him in 1986, and France never really followed. He died at twenty-nine. Jean Marais, as much a sculptor as an actor, signed the bronze mask that adorns his tomb.
The story
Patrick Bougis was born in Paris on 18 December 1958. A meeting with Salvador Dalí decided his life: he would be a singer. Charles Sudaka discovered him and pushed him on; he took the name Valerio and recorded Amore mi amore, then Bravo chérie.
Success came, but elsewhere. His South American tours played to full houses in the early 1980s, and the audience in Casablanca gave him an ovation on 9 July 1986. In France, his own country, Les Filles de la Côte d'Azur and Rêveur par erreur never quite broke through.
He died on 31 May 1988 in Paris, at twenty-nine. The monument raised on the chemin du Père Éternel, in Division 10, is imposingly neoclassical for so young an artist, and carries a bronze mask by Jean Marais — the actor had a second career as a sculptor and ceramicist, which he pursued at Vallauris and which the public knew nothing about.
The epitaph does not sum up a career: it lists tastes. Stendhal, Pavarotti, Gamine, Pink Floyd — then the sentence stops on his age, and the ellipsis does the rest.
On site, do not miss
The bronze mask, on the face of the monument: look for Jean Marais's signature in the bas-relief. Then read the epitaph to the end — it finishes on an ellipsis.
Visitors' questions
Where is Valerio's grave?
In Division 10 of Père-Lachaise, chemin du Père Éternel, in the first row. Look for an imposing neo-classical monument with a bronze mask on its face. The singer Mano Solo lies in the same Division, a few steps away.
Mano SoloWho sculpted the bronze mask on Valerio's grave?
Jean Marais, and his signature is there on the bas-relief. The actor had a second career as a sculptor and ceramicist, far less well known than his life on screen. Division 10 also holds the sculptor Auguste Clésinger.
Auguste ClésingerWho was the singer Valerio?
Patrick Bougis (1958-1988), a French singer who became Valerio after a meeting with Salvador Dalí. His South American tours in the early 1980s were triumphs, but France never gave him the success he was waiting for.
Frank AlamoWhat else is there to see in Division 10?
Pierre Desproges, Claude Chabrol, the writer Remy de Gourmont and the Nobel laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias all lie there. Division 10 runs alongside the main entrance: allow twenty minutes or so to walk round it.
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