LES CAVES DU ROY

The glamour of the ’60s pervades Saint-Tropez’s sexiest and most storied nightclub...

- DUNCAN QUINN

The story of the infamous Les Caves du Roy nightclub at the Hotel Byblos in St. Tropez starts with a fairytale. And a fairytale princess Vanity Fair once described as “youth, sex, flirtatiousness, insolence, and grace, all wrapped up in a bewildering nonchalance — a heady mix.” They could well have been referring to Les Caves Du Roy itself; but in fact they were describing the inspirational force behind it — Brigitte Bardot.

For some might say she is the real reason the hotel and nightclub exist. Bardot initially made her way from ballet lessons in Paris to the movie screens of France with a string of lighthearted comedies, and then in 1956 took the world by storm as a blonde bombshell in Roger Vadim’s cult film And God Created Woman.

A burning spotlight had been shone upon St. Tropez, a small, quiet fishing village in the south of France where the movie was filmed. And nothing would ever be the same again. For Bardot, St. Tropez, or an impresario in a different Francophile world across the Mediterranean Sea. A spell had been cast from the silver screen onto a man in Lebanon. And magic was about to happen.