France Bids Farewell to Nathalie Baye at Saint‑Sulpice

Overview

• The service at Paris’s Saint‑Sulpice, held Friday, drew about 400 invited guests and roughly 100 members of the public.
• Laura Smet delivered a tearful tribute, calling her mother “an incredible friend, an eternal lover and a fabulous mother.”
• The family said the burial would be private, and reports in Paris Match said guests were asked to give a password by naming an animal dear to the actress.
• Relatives said she had Lewy body disease, a neurodegenerative illness with symptoms seen in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, which the family had largely kept private.
• Baye’s career spanned work with François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and Xavier Dolan, plus a turn in Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, earning four César awards and broad respect across French culture.