'Simple' goodbye to Bardot lined up in Saint-Tropez

Many eyes will be on the guests at the service at Notre-Dame de l'Assomption church, burial at a seaside cemetery and a public event in the Riviera resort.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has confirmed she will attend, while President Emmanuel Macron will not.

Some showbiz stars can be expected, but her animal rights foundation has stressed it will be a "no frills" event.

"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, spokesman for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, told AFP.

The funeral will be shown on public screens in Saint-Tropez for well-wishers and fans who are expected to shrug off brisk winter temperatures to pay a final tribute.

The star of "And God Created Woman" died aged 91 on December 28 at her home in Saint-Tropez, where she retreated after giving up her film career in the early 1970s. No cause of death has been given.
Divisive
Bardot was a divisive figure who alienated many fans with her anti-immigration and racist political views in later life.

Her death sparked mixed reactions. Observers agreed that she was a cinema legend who came to embody the sexual revolution of the 1960s through her acting and daring, unconventional persona.

But having been convicted five times for hate speech, particularly about Muslims, left-wing figures have offered only muted tributes -- and sometimes none at all.

"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?" commented Greens lawmaker Sandrine Rousseau about Bardot's views.

Macron's office offered to organise a national homage similar to one staged for fellow New Wave hero Jean-Paul Belmondo in 2021, but the president was snubbed by Bardot's family.

She is survived by her fourth husband, Bernard d'Ormale, a former advisor to Le Pen's late father Jean-Marie, an outspoken far-right leader.

No information has been given about whether Bardot's only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, will attend the funeral.
Family dynamics
Charrier, 65, was brought up by his father, film director Jacques Charrier, and lives in Oslo.

Bardot wrote in her memoirs that she had wanted an abortion but was prevented from doing so by her then-husband.

She compared pregnancy to carrying a "tumour that fed on me" and called parenthood a "misery", living most of her life estranged from her son, although they drew closer in the final years of her life.

Bardot's sister Mijanou, 87, who had a brief film career, is not expected to make the trip from her home in Los Angeles.

"My Brigitte, the one I loved more than anything... now knows the greatest of mysteries. She also knows whether our beloved pets are waiting for us on the other side," she wrote on Facebook.

"My God, please let that be the case so she doesn't feel alone, but is with them."

In 2018, Brigitte Bardot had said she wished to be buried in the garden of her home along with her pets to avoid a "crowd of idiots" trampling on the tombs of her parents and grandparents who are in the same cemetery where she will be interred.