Home of the Week: This $26 Million St. Tropez Villa Will Make Brigitte Bardot and Bernard Arnault Your Neighbors

Ever since the sultry French starlet Brigitte Bardot landed in St. Tropez to film And God Created Women in 1956, this once sleepy, rustic fishing village has been the official headquarters of the French Riviera jet set.

These days, the town gets snarled in the summer with traffic, tourists shuffle shoulder-to-shoulder around the old port, while the cost of a rosé-infused lunch at Le Club 55 on nearby Pampelonne Beach will melt your Amex card.

But for the affluent who still want to enjoy the delights of this scenically spectacular part of the world, there is one haven of peace, serenity and security a short Mini Moke drive from the town center: Les Parcs de Saint-Tropez.

This gated and guarded neighborhood of around 120 or so villas and estates continues to be ranked as one of the most prestigious communities on the planet. Home owners include Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LMVH; Hôtel Ritz Paris owner Mohamed Al-Fayed; and Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.

And just steps away on the southern perimeter is the longtime home of Bardot, called La Madrague. She bought the former fishing house in the late ’50s and still lives there with her coterie of pets.

Homes here rarely become available, especially ones with unobstructed views of the Bay of St. Tropez, the Massif des Maures mountains in the distance and jaw-dropping golden sunsets.

But just listed with luxury property specialists Finest Residences is this sublime, two-story French Provençal villa with 4,500-square-feet of space, six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a heated pool and huge terraces for soaking up the sun.

While the price is “on application,” Finest Residences CEO Bernard Corcos tells Robb Report that homes with this kind of prized location would typically fetch in the region of 20 to 23 million euros. So we’re estimating an asking price of around $26 million.

“Here it is all about location,” says Corcos. “The villa sits elevated on a west-facing hillside with the best views of the Baie des Canoubiers, the sunset, and over the tree-tops of Les Parcs along the Cap Saint-Pierre peninsula. It is a very special place.”

Built in 2002, the home was fully renovated in 2014, creating a redesigned wood-beamed living room/dining room area, with floor-to-ceiling glass, making the most of those spectacular sea views.

While the entire Les Parcs community is gated and patrolled 24/7 by ex-military guards, the villa itself has its own gates that open on to a crunchy, gravel courtyard. Steps lead down to the main front entrance with its imposing wooden doors and into that vast living/dining area with a newly modernized kitchen off to the side.

Those huge living area windows open on to a large terrace with glass balustrades that offer protection from the occasional blustery mistral wind. On the floors, and also throughout the home, is marble tiling the color of sand.

A marble staircase leads down to the garden level with the primary bedroom suite, a VIP suite and the three other ensuite bedrooms. And each of the bedrooms claims shutter-style doors leading out on to the main terrace and pool.

Alongside the pool is a huge tiled patio for alfresco dining, complete with outdoor fireplace for chilly nights. For fitness fans, the home comes with an impressively-sized gym with mirrored walls, huge TV screen and racks of weights.

In the lush grounds of the estate there’s also a self-contained studio apartment, a multi-car garage, a couple of pergola-covered side terraces offering shade from the sun and gorgeous manicured lawns.

“For someone who cherishes privacy, safety for their family, and the security of living almost in a bubble within a bubble, this is one of the finest properties, not only on the Côte d’Azur, but in the world,” says Corcos.