SAINT-TROPEZ, France — The French Riviera resort town of Saint-Tropez hosted a poignant dual tribute on Wednesday to honor Brigitte Bardot, the iconic actress turned animal rights activist who passed away December 28 at age 91. The ceremony blended private family mourning with public admiration for the woman who called this Mediterranean haven home for over fifty years.
Bardot’s funeral procession moved through the narrow streets of Saint-Tropez as residents and admirers applauded the final journey of the woman who once captivated global cinema. The coffin of the legendary screen siren, whose image defined 1960s sensuality and French postwar liberation, was carried to the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Catholic Church where a private service commenced with Maria Callas’ rendition of ‘Ave Maria.’
In attendance were Bardot’s husband Bernard d’Ormale, who revealed in a Paris Match interview that cancer had claimed her life following two operations, along with her son, grandchildren, and invited representatives from the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for animal protection. ‘She remained conscious and concerned about animal welfare until her final moments,’ d’Ormale attested.
Max Guazzini, foundation secretary general, expressed the collective grief: ‘Sadness is overwhelming, and pain too.’ In a moving eulogy, he envisioned Bardot’s arrival in ‘a great, white immensity’ followed by ‘thousands of animals she saved… forming a procession behind her.’
Hundreds gathered at public viewing areas with large screens installed at the port and town squares to witness the farewell. Bardot will be interred in the strictest privacy at the marine cemetery overlooking the Mediterranean, joining her parents and first husband Roger Vadim—the director who launched her international career with the groundbreaking film ‘And God Created Woman.’
Though she retired from filmmaking at 39 in 1973 after starring in over two dozen films, Bardot remained a visible and often controversial public figure through her militant animal rights activism and associations with far-right politics. The town hall acknowledged her enduring legacy, stating: ‘Brigitte Bardot will forever be associated with Saint-Tropez, of which she was the most dazzling ambassador.’