Letters revive emotional dialogue
between Quebec culture stars Godin, Julien
By David Winch
Hand-written letters and postcards may be on the way out in 2026, which makes reading them even more intriguing. This is certainly the case for the love letters between writer/politician Gérald Godin and legendary Québécoise singer Pauline Julien, his longtime companion and lover. They are remarkable.
Selected letters were read aloud to a full house at North Hatley Library on May 1st. These were performed with oomph and style by two Township residents, accomplished stage and screen performers Marie Tifo and Pierre Curzi.
The letter-filled dialogue is based on the collection La renarde et le mal peigné (roughly, The Fox and the Unkempt Guy), whose subtitle is “Fragments de correspondence amoureuse 1962-1993” (Léméac Ēditeur, 2009).
The couple’s letters were selected from private archives by Julien’s daughter Pascale Galipeau.
The texts are often very florid, wordy, obsessive, and full of “Je suis follement en amour” flourishes.
Their missives became a river of words — unimaginable today in the email era — with as many as six to eight letters transiting monthly between them in Trois Rivières and Montreal, then between Montreal and Paris and everywhere else they each travelled apart for work and adventure – Brazil, Central Africa, Poland, and throughout Quebec.
Godin (1938-1994) was a flamboyant Quebec personality, both a poet and politician, with his journalism linking the two domains. Early in the 1960s, Godin was based in Trois-Rivières doing newspaper work. Later that decade, he was worked in Montreal at political publisher Parti Pris. Meanwhile, Julien (1928-1998) pursued her highly successful musical career, eventually recording 23 solo albums, in Montreal and Paris.
Their letters, both brief notes and much more involved poem/essays, abound with word play and witty rejoinders.
As Godin wrote, in July 1962, “Sincerely, your letter is so like you, more than one could imagine. You agree, then you disagree, you shout, you are lyrical, then harsh, you move forward, you move backward, you love, you no longer love, you know, you no longer know, you see clearly, you are blind.”
In return, Julien replies from Paris that she was tempted to phone him, but “that does not allow for a deep exchange between us, this look into one another that we can have together” through letters.
(“Je vous embrasse….” — Anglo language-learners might be puzzled by the personal pronouns they used, which we always learned were “tu” for informal and “vous” for more formal address. In today’s Quebec, of course, tu is used almost everywhere (except police officers!). But in the early 1960s, these classically trained writers stuck to the more formal term.)
Actors Marie Tifo and Pierre Curzi gave spirited performances in reviving decades-old love letters.
One recent biography, Godin (Lux, 2023) by Jonathan Livernois, mentions his extensive links to the Townships, including the country home of the extended Godin-Julien family. In the 1960s he had been part of political discussion groups here, notably one headed by sociologist and indépendantiste Marcel Rioux. Poetry readings in North Hatley in the 1980s, with D.B. Jones, among other anglo poets at the Blue Moon festival, included Godin.
In the 1980s as a young Montreal journalist I knew Godin in passing, when he made his mark as a PQ minister, specifically as liaison to anglo and minority communities. He memorably learned Greek to communicate better with constituents in his central Montreal riding of Mercier. He welcomed me to his office, even if our overlong interviews irritated his staff by delaying schedules. Always personally gracious.
The couple’s presence is missed in the Townships, but the emotional renditions of their work by Tifo and Curzi helped bring it to life. Bravo.
Originally published in the Sherbrooke Record, June 29 2026
