The place that Bardot made famous

Press, 11 December 1976, Page 14

The place that Bardot made famous

CHARLES LEFEBURE

At the close of the twentieth season since the fishing village of St Tropez became the world’s most fashionable resort, the days of the "beautiful people” are well and truly over for this Mediterranean holiday mecca between Nice and Toulon.

Brigitte Bardot, who put St Tropez on the map by moving there in 1956, has hardly been seen at all this year. Her £300.000 villa, La Madrague, on a secluded private estate known as Les Parcs, has been let for most of the season at £6OOO a mon tin

It all started just two decades ago when 22-year-old Bardot, at the height of her “sex kitten” fame, went to the tiny village to film “And God Created Woman.” and fell deeply in love with the place. She bought her villa, and, to the mayor s annoyance, was soon regarded as the most distinguished citizen. Within weeks of 8.8. moving in, the young,

rich and beautiful were arriving in St Tropez and the place was never the same again. The authoress Francoise Sagan was seen strolling around the harbour in fishermans shirt and worn-out dungarees. The Aga Khan, Sophia Loren and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands arrived to see what all the fuss was about, and stayed for the summer.

The actresses Jeanne Moreau. Romy Schneider and Elsa Martinelli bought houses there and within weeks estate agents were reporting prices had soared. Hotels and cafes were unable to cope with the flood of wealthy "beautiful people” and so the speculators moved in.

A year after Bardot had discovered the place, new hotels, restaurants and casinos were being built and St Tropez’s tourist income had risen from virtually nothing to more than £2M a year.

Already people were beginning to complain that things weren't the same as in the old days. The deserted beaches on which Bardot and her friends would sunbathe in the nude were now thronged with day-trippers from Nice. Angrily 8.8. stalked off the beach, vowed never to return, and never did Now she rents a secluded bay about tw’o miles from St Tropez and guards are on constant patrol against trespassers and cameramen. St Tropez stayed in high fashion for just 10 years. Then, in the mid-sixties, fed up with being stared at by vast throngs of people. the jet-setters began to move out. They left behind sumptuous villas — some have been on estate agents’ books ever since. Others have been taken over by hippie squatters and turned into communes. Francoise Sagan leturned to Paris com-

plaining that the placet was now lull of "trippers and people with all sorts of inelegant accents.” But as the jet-setters • moved out, ordinary folk • moved in — by the thousand. Today the streets are jammed with cheap restaurants, ice-cream parlours, fishand-chip shops and pancake houses. They’ve never been busier. No wonder the “beautiful people” have gone. But the local people, to whom every new holidaymaker spells cash, don t regret their passing. "Every time anyone dies here and a front room becomes available,” 1 was told, “a new shop, cafe, or fish-and-chip bar opens. "Of course things have changed. We don't get many film stars here now and Brigitte Bardot is very rarely around nowadays. But that doesn’t matter. "In the past 20 years we've had a lot to thank her for. Today St Tropez, can manage very' well on its own.”