Appareille comes from the verb appareiller, which means 'to set sail' or 'to depart', typically for a ship.
In this song, Gainsbourg uses it poetically to describe his 'rêveuse âme' (dreamy soul) setting sail 'pour un ciel lointain' (for a distant sky). It evokes a sense of journey, escape, and romantic longing, making it a more evocative and less common choice than a simple 'part' or 'go'.
This song is Serge Gainsbourg putting Charles Baudelaire’s sensual poetry into music, and you can really feel it. The lyrics are one long, slow look at a lover’s body, moving lazily and almost theatrically. He watches “Que j'aime voir chère indolente” [How I love to see you, dear lazy one] and compares her skin to “une étoffe vacillante” [a flickering piece of fabric] and her hair to “Mer odorante et vagabonde” [a wandering, fragrant sea]. It is not a realistic description at all, it is exaggerated, dreamlike, almost like he is slightly drunk on how she moves and smells.
The mood keeps slipping between admiration and something a bit dangerous. Her eyes are “deux bijoux froids où se mêlent l'or avec le fer” [two cold jewels where gold mixes with iron], beautiful but hard. Her walk looks like “un serpent qui danse au bout d'un bâton” [a snake dancing at the end of a stick], which is both hypnotic and unsettling. Even her laziness becomes huge and animal: her head moves with “la mollesse d'un jeune éléphant” [the softness of a young elephant]. In the end, when “l'eau de ta bouche remonte au bord de tes dents” [the water of your mouth rises to the edge of your teeth], he says he feels like he is drinking “un vin de Bohème” [a Bohemian wine], a bitter, victorious drink that turns his heart into “un ciel liquide” [a liquid sky] full of stars. It is a love song where the lover is not sweet or simple, but heavy, slow, dangerous, and completely fascinating.
Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) was one of France's most influential and provocative singer-songwriters, celebrated for his sharp wit, playful wordplay, and fearless approach to taboo subjects. Born Lucien Ginsburg in Paris to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, he first made his name writing songs for other French stars before building his own singing career through the 1960s and 1970s.
He moved fluidly between chanson, pop, reggae, and rock, and became internationally known for the breathy 1969 duet "Je t'aime... moi non plus" with Jane Birkin. Songs like "Premiers SymptĂ´mes" show his gift for turning dark, personal subject matter, heartbreak and self-destruction, into vivid, darkly funny storytelling. He remains one of the most sampled and studied songwriters in French pop history.