Brigitte Bardot Statue

Before you stands the statue of Brigitte Bardot, unveiled in 2017 on her 83rd birthday. Created by Milo Manara, the famous Italian comic book artist, it shows her seated in a seashell, barefoot, hair flowing, lost in thought. Far from a frozen image of glamour, it’s Bardot as Manara imagined her : free, wild, untamed. Because Bardot is far more than a name or a film icon. In the 1950s, almost without meaning to, she transformed Saint-Tropez. As you’ve gathered during this visit, with the film And God Created Woman, she thrust the little fishing port onto screens around the world. The result was immediate: celebrities poured in, paparazzi followed, and Saint-Tropez became the very symbol of a sun-soaked, hedonistic lifestyle. Yet Bardot herself only half-embraced that image. What she truly loved was the intimate Saint-Tropez, the fishermen, her circle of friends, the impromptu evenings far from the spotlight. And it wasn’t the first time she was turned into an icon. In the 1970s, the sculptor Aslan even gave her features to Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, an extraordinary honor for a woman still alive. Since the 1970s, Bardot has lived away from cinema in her home at La Madrague, dedicating her life to the defense of animals. Here, seated in her seashell, she embodies everything she represents: a beauty that is free, radiant, rebellious, and above all, a true daughter of Saint-Tropez, shaping the village’s image as much as it shaped hers.