Brigitte Bardot laid to rest in funeral ceremony broadcast across Saint-Tropez

1 day ago 13

Brigitte Bardot, the film star turned animal rights activist, has been laid to rest after a funeral service in Saint-Tropez attended by her favourite politician, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Bardot died at her La Madrague villa on 28 December aged 91. Her funeral was held at the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church and broadcast on large screens across the town.

People dressed in warm jackets, some wearing hats and hoods, stand and lean on a metal barrier in a street. A large photo of the young Bardot is in a window behind them.

Speaking before the service, her husband, Bernard d’Ormale, said Bardot died of cancer. Without specifying the type of cancer, d’Ormale told Paris Match his wife had dealt “very well” with two operations before the disease “took her” last month.

Bardot shot to international fame in the 1950s and was credited with revolutionising French cinema with films such as And God Created Woman, while defying tradition to become a symbol of sexual liberation.

Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, who is in his mid-60s and dressed in a dark coat, walks across a stone square holding the hand of a young boy who holds the hand of a blond-haired woman to his other side. A large group of people are following them.

She retired from acting in the 1970s and became an outspoken campaigner for animal rights. She also became increasingly active politically on the far right, alienating some fans in her later life with her hardline public views on immigration.

Bardot was convicted five times for hate speech, particularly about Muslims, and up until her death she expressed her contentment at Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally party’s rising share of the vote before the 2027 presidential race.

A white Mercedes hearse travels down a stone-paved street as people including photographers look on from behind metal barriers. Men in dark jackets walk behind and around the hearse. The street is lined with tall, pale pink and peach-coloured buildings with white shutters, typical of the south of France.

On Wednesday there were cheers as the funeral procession passed through the Place des Lices and by the port of Saint-Tropez before Bardot’s coffin entered the church as a song by Maria Callas played, Nice-Matin reported.

People gather in front of a giant screen showing the ceremony in a public square; there is a tall Christmas tree to one side and the square is lined with tall, pale yellow buildings.

Along with Bardot’s family, including her son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, 65, among those attending the funeral were the French singers Jean-Roch and Mireille Mathieu, the TV personality Caroline Margeridon and Paul Watson, the Canadian-American marine conservation and animal rights activist.

Le Pen, who has cited Bardot as a model for Marianne, the female symbol of the French republic – as the ultimate symbol of Frenchness – was also there. There was mutual admiration between the two women: Bardot once referred to Le Pen as a modern-day Joan of Arc.

Marine Le Pen, dressed in black, stands in a group of people and behind a police officer; on the wall behind her there is a large black and white poster showing Bardot holding a seal.

Bardot’s devotion to campaigning for animal rights was expected to be a key theme of the funeral commemorations.

“The ceremony will reflect who she was, with the people who knew and loved her. There will no doubt be some surprises, but it will be simple, just as Brigitte wanted,” Bruno Jacquelin, a spokesperson for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, told AFP beforehand.

Bardot’s death prompted a mixed reaction. Sandrine Rousseau, a politician with the Greens, said: “To be moved by the fate of dolphins but remain indifferent to the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean – what level of cynicism is that?”

Read Entire Article