God still creates women on the Côte d’Azur, according to Tania Cagnoni; Times online; August 8, 2005
Dazzling sun, rich older men, blue skies and convertibles are as much a part of the backdrop to St-Tropez today as they were when Vadim’s film about the wild teenage orphan Juliette with a passion for Mambo and caddishly handsome Antoine (Christian Marquand), launched Bardot into superstardom.
Simultaneously, it thrust St-Tropez – formerly an insignificant fishing village - into the limelight, and the fishing village promptly re-invented itself as the Cristal-quaffing, diamond-rattling playground for the hyper-branché that it is today.
Although little of the original simplicity remains, the warm colours, stylish shops, cobbled streets, harbourside cafes and wild beach clubs make it worth a visit.
And for those who prefer rural calm to jet-setting, vineyards and peaceful pine forests can still be found hidden in the lanes of its Ramatuelle district.
A great way to recapture the atmosphere of the film is on The Bardot Trail, starting at the Nouveau Port (location of the boatyard in the film) and passing the super yachts around quai Bouchard, before stopping at quai Peri where ‘boat tours of celebrity villas’ visit Bardot’s former villa La Madrague.
Stroll along the harbour where she skipped aboard Carradine’s yacht and stop for a pastis at Le Gorille (+33 4 94 97 03 93), on the site of the film’s Bar des Amis, or at Sénéquier (+33 4 94 97 00 90) for a spot of rubber necking from the red directors’ chairs.
The route continues via the quai Mistral and Tour du Portalet and across the cove of La Glaye to Port des Pêcheurs, taking in the site of the beach and the fisherman’s house made famous by the film. Walk up through the old town to the Place l’Hôtel de Ville, which you might recognise as the location of the librarie.
Finally, climb up to the 16th century citadel, which towers above the Port des Pêcheurs, for views of many locations shots and across the Gulf of Saint-Tropez.
Perhaps the classic landmark from the film is the Port des Pécheurs, the tiny beach with the pretty, blue-shuttered fisherman’s house where Juliette lived after marrying Michel. There are no longer any fishing nets or boats: just streams of tourists. The whitewashed house is still there, but it’s privately owned.
The charming Hôtel-Restaurant de La Ponche (+33 4 94 97 02 53, www.laponche.com); doubles from £118 per night, overhanging the Port des Pécheurs, was really more of a bar in 1955. During filming, Bardot used the bar as her headquarters - changing clothes, eating meals and drinking, often with Vadim – and also hung out at the Tropicana Club, now the restaurant’s office.
The owner, Mme Duckstein (a teenager at the time), remembers Bardot scooting behind the bar to pick up pretty coloured bottles to turn into lamps for her villa La Madrague (now an animal sanctuary). It’s now part of a chic romantic restaurant serving excellent Provençal cuisine and a pretty 18-roomed hotel with splendid sea and Citadel views. Romy Schneider and Olivier Martinez are former guests.
The club scene still thrives. La Voile Rouge (+33 4 94 79 84 34), the location of many a 21st century girl’s outrageous behaviour, occupies prime position on the golden sands of the Plage de Pampellone (the setting for Juliette’s downfall).
This is the Bermuda Triangle of naughty girls. The first girls to go topless did so here, bypassing nudity bylaws by putting bottle tops on their nipples. Today, bikini-clad babes dance on the bar, whilst being sprayed with champagne (Dom Perignon - £330 a bottle).
More babes can be found in L’Esquinade at 2 rue du Four (+33 4 94 97 87 44), where Bardot danced the nights away in 1955, and which is now predominantly gay. And still more shaking their booties under the mirror balls lighting up the dance floor at the infamous Caves du Roy on avenue du Maréchal Foch (+33 4 94 97 16 02, www.lescavesduroy.com), where drinks are nose-bleedingly expensive and you have to get past the bouncers (it’s worth it).
VIP Room (+33 494 97 14 70, www.viproom.fr) on avenue du 11 Novembre 1918 is the other top-drawer nightclub, playing modern/techno music for fashionistas. La Bodega du Papagayo (+33 494 79 29 50, www.papagayobodega.com), on residence du Nouveau Port, quai Bouchard, has dinner-dancing St-Trop style. Don’t arrive till midnight and expect to stay till 4/5am.
During the day, and on the same stretch of beach as La Voile Rouge, the renowned Club 55 (+33 494 55 55 55, www.leclub55.com), was named after the year the film was shot. It used to be a beach bar and snack hut where the film crew dined. Now the stars themselves occupy its blue-and-white canopied terrace, dining on the freshest fish that euros can buy.
Saint-Tropez is not all untrammelled sophistication and glitter. The house in the film’s opening scenes (a privately-owned villa near Chapelle Ste-Anne) may now be surrounded by swanky villas, but there are still sandy paths on which to cycle, with stunning views across the sea to the smoky Esterel Mountains.
These dusty, peaceful landscapes, thrumming with cicadas, can be found around Ramatuelle, where the most expensive real estate, inland of Saint-Tropez, has been snapped up by modern icons such as George Michael and Elton John.
If a villa is out of your reach, the four-star boutique hotel Villa Marie (+33 494 97 40 22, www.c-h-m.com); doubles from £175, is a heavenly alternative, with a stunning pool, views across to the Gulf of Saint-Tropez and a Fermes de Marie spa with massage cabins hidden in its acres of pine forest.
Today, of course, Saint-Tropez is legendary for its shopping. For bling-on-a-budget, pick up rocks the size of a filmstar’s ego from Swarkovski on Place des Lices, then nip next door to the designer boutique to squeeze into an Alexander McQueen sequinned mini and Jimmy Choos to match.
For casual beach chic, team stunning linen from Camisse in the Grand Passage (between rue George Clémenceau and rue Allard) with traditionally-made, strappy Tropezienne sandals, from Atelier Rondini on rue Georges Clémenceau.
Follow that film…
* And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956) is available from www.amazon.co.uk for £14.99 plus p&p.
* EasyJet (0871 750 0100, www.easyjet.com), FlyBmi (0870 264 2229, www.flybmi.com) and British Airways (www.ba.com) all fly daily to Nice.
* Expect to pay from around £16.50 (for lunch) and £25 (for dinner) for a three-course meal, plus wine, at the Restaurant de La Ponche (as above).
* MMG’s Baie des Cannebiers celebrity villa boat trips leave from quai Peri every hour in summer. Adults £5, children £2.50.
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