Brigitte Bardot's La Madrague villa in Saint-Tropez to open to the public in summer 2027

The announcement

The Fondation Brigitte Bardot announced on Friday, 13 November 2026, that La Madrague, the former fishermen's house in Saint-Tropez where the actress lived, will open to the public from summer 2027. The foundation, which the former actress created to defend animals, plans to present the house as Bardot left it when she died on 28 December 2025 at the age of 91. Visitors are expected to find the rooms intact, as if she had only stepped out. A foundation spokesperson said Bardot did not want the house to become a museum, but had indicated she did not object to visits.

How visits will work

The access arrangements have not been settled in detail. The foundation expects visits to be booked in advance and limited to small groups, because the house is small and cramped. The property sits at the end of a municipal coastal road, and coaches cannot reach it, which rules out bus tours. For the same logistical reasons, an earlier idea of a conventional museum was dropped, according to 20 Minuten.

Light renovation work has already begun. Paint and cracks are to be repaired without altering the character of the site. The estate also includes the Petite Madrague, where Bardot's friends stayed, a smaller building nicknamed the microbus, the former gatehouse, a swimming pool, a pontoon and a private beach protected by a low wall. Bardot bought the house in 1958, two years after the success of the film Et Dieu... cree la femme, and had a wall built so she could bathe out of public view.

A house with a history

According to AGI, Bardot welcomed friends and figures from film and entertainment there, among them Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Sacha Distel. Parties held at the house often made the French press, yet it was also the place where she tried to escape photographers and the fame that followed her everywhere. In 1963 she dedicated a song to the house, also titled La Madrague, which became one of her best-known recordings. She gave the house to her animal protection foundation in 1992.

Burial and the wider estate

Bardot had once considered being buried in the garden, but the sandy soil close to the sea made that impossible. She was instead buried in the marine cemetery of Saint-Tropez, with a view of La Madrague. ANSA reports that her succession was closed on 9 November 2026, in full agreement with her son Nicolas Charrier. Under a notarial agreement, her second house, La Garrigue, on the heights above Saint-Tropez, where she kept many animals, now belongs to the foundation.

What comes next

The opening is planned for summer 2027, but the booking system, ticketing and group sizes beyond the reference to small groups are still to be defined. The foundation has framed the project as a way to let visitors feel the house is still lived in, with its personal belongings and souvenirs kept in place.