Brigitte Bardot to be buried by the sea in Saint-Tropez

French actor and animals rights activist Brigitte Bardot smiles after a meeting on the environment with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, unseen, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007. (AP / Jacques Brinon)

SAINT-TROPEZ, France - French film icon Brigitte Bardot, who died on Sunday aged 91, will be buried in a cemetery by the sea in the French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez, local authorities said on Monday.

The funeral ceremony will take place on January 7 at 1000 GMT at Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption church in Saint-Tropez, the municipality said in a statement.

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The burial will be held in the strictest privacy but a tribute open to locals and fans will take place at the Pre des Pecheurs area in the old town quarter called La Ponche, the historic center of the former fishing village.

Bardot, who became a symbol of 1950s and 60s France, made her home in the resort where she said she found solace among animals and dedicated her life to their welfare.

“She was lovely, lovely, there’s no other word. Yes, we will really miss her,” Saint-Tropez resident Philippe Volmier told Reuters on Monday.

Volmier said he had known her for 30 years and used to see her walking her dogs on the beach. “One time, she fell into the water with her dog. I had to pick her out,” he added. “She was a friend who helped people a lot.”

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President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday Bardot embodied “a life of freedom.” “A French existence, a universal radiance. She moved us. We mourn a legend of the century,” he added.

For much of the latter part of her life, she lived alone behind high walls in the resort, surrounded by a menagerie of cats, dogs and horses.

She told French weekly Paris Match in 2024 that she wanted to be buried in her garden.

The Var Prefecture told Reuters it had not received any request for a private burial, which would have been needed to bury her in her garden.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, Elissa Darwish, Additional reporting by Marc Leras, writing by Dominique Vidalon, Editing by Andrew Heavens)