Bourdain’s body stuck in France
FRENCH RED TAPE means Anthony Bourdain’s remains won’t be sent to the U.S. for at least several more days.
“Everything takes time over there. There are formalities to go through, etcetera,” his 83-yearold mother, Gladys Bourdain, told the Daily News on Sunday.
“It’ll be soon, but I’m not sure when,” she said.
It takes at least five business days for French officials to release a body for shipment home to the U.S., the State Department says on its website.
Anthony Bourdain’s estranged wife, Ottavia Busia Bourdain, is in charge of the arrangements, his mom said. Ottavia Busia Bourdain could not be reached Sunday.
Bourdain, 61, committed suicide Friday in a hotel room in Kaysersberg, France, in the wine-producing area of the Alsace region.
He was visiting the area to work on an episode of his CNN series “Parts Unknown.”
Gladys Bourdain said she’s heard “a lot of nice words of condolence” from friends and acquaintances.
She had heard that many people are leaving remembrances at the site of her son’s shuttered restaurant, Brasserie Les Halles, which was located at Park Ave. South near Madison Square Park.
“There are people taping notes and things to the windows,” she said.