Et Dieu... Créa La Femme (...And God Created Woman) | 1957

Director Roger Vadim put not only Brigitte Bardot on the map, as the original ‘sex kitten’, but also the little coastal town of Saint-Tropez, in this widescreen sex melodrama, regarded as scandalous in its day.

Considering its reputation, the tiny fishing port is, visually at least, astonishingly unchanged since the Fifties and you’ll recognise most of the film’s locations.

The home of Juliete Hardy (Bardot) is in the La Ponche district, north of the Old Town, but most of the film was shot on the picturesque waterfront.

It’s still a jumble of tiny pastel-coloured cafes, and you can see the office of wealthy Eric Carradine (Curt Jürgens) on Quai Jean Jaurès.

The sea wall and steps, where Juliete virtually invents the Fifties screen art of pouting and wiggling, are on Môle Jean Réveille, across the port from Belvedere de la Marine.

Nearby is the gentle slope of Quai Frédéric Mistral, which was the site of the ‘Bar des Amis’, outside which young Michel (Jean-Louis Trintignant) gets involved in a fistfight and in the basement of which the movie climaxes. The bar is now a souvenir shop, Bleu Continu.

Tucked away behind the cafés here is the newsagent where Juliete works, which now seems to be a vacant building, 2 Rue du Cepoun Louis Sanmartin, at the junction with Montée Honnorat Coste.

The nearest airport to Saint-Tropez is Toulon-Hyères Aeroport, about 30 miles to the west, or there’s Aeroport Nice-Côte d’Azur, about 40 miles east. Remember to allow plenty of time if you’re driving into town. The roads into Saint-Tropez can become spectacularly clogged, and this can be a frustratingly slow journey.

---