A Brigitte Bardot statue is being constructed in this French city
Known for her New Wave films perhaps just as much as her bombshell beauty and bikinis, Brigitte Bardot was launched into icon status in the 1960s.
Now the French star will get her own statue in the city of St. Tropez, France.
The town will honor Brigitte Bardot on the occasion of her 83rd birthday with a statue measuring approximately 8.2 feet and weighing more than 1,500 pounds, Agence-France Presse reported.
The statue will be based on a watercolor drawing made by an Italian artist, and it’s set to sit facing the film museum.
Bardot helped put the town on the map with the 1956 film “And God Created Woman.” At the time the movie was filmed, St. Tropez was a bohemian fishing village, and the buzz of the film generated huge tourist interest.
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In the past 60 years, St. Tropez has been transformed into a glitzy Riviera getaway, in part thanks to its unofficial first lady.
“When you say ‘Saint Tropez,’ people respond ‘Brigitte Bardot,’” Claude Maniscalco, director of the tourism office said, French publication L’Observateur reported.
“It’s an homage that the city wanted to offer her,” he said. “The relationship between the two is very strong.”
Bardot retired from film in the 1970s and has since spent most of her life on the outskirts of St. Tropez, working as an animal rights activist. She will not attend the unveiling, but she called the statue an “immense honor,” according to the same AFP report.
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While the statue might be a first for St. Tropez, it will not be the only one honoring the actress in the world. The small Brazilian town of Armação dos Búzios erected a bronze work to commemorate her 1960s visit to the village.
This article originally appeared in Travelandleisure.com
