Last November saw the final days of an exhibition by the Musée d’Histoire et d’Art in Bormes-les-Mimosas (Var) which reconstructed four rooms at Fort de Brégançon – the medieval fortress on an island off the French Riviera – under four very different French presidents.
The fort has been the official retreat (lieu de villégiature) of the President of the French Republic for over half a century.
It is one of only five presidential residences, along with the Elysée Palace, Hôtel de Marigny and Palais de l’Alma in Paris, and La Lanterne in Versailles.
The Var exhibition was the most recent example of attempts by the executive to demystify aspects of government. At Fort de Brégançon, that mission began in 2014 when then- President Francois Hollande allowed guided tours.
Until then, the island had been shrouded in secrecy – the only details released at the discretion of presidents or speculated at from paparazzi snaps taken from afar.
Historical monument
Damien Bonfils
The island boasts 2,400 years of human history, massively pre-dating its relatively recent links with the presidency, and many stories are yet to surface.
Nevertheless it has become inextricably linked with French politics since it became an official presidential residence on January 5, 1968, and was listed as a monument historique nine months later.
“To be summoned, unexpectedly, by the President in the presence of the Prime Minister to one of the most guarded residences of the French Republic, is, for a political journalist, the equivalent of a football fan being offered training with Lionel Messi.”
This is what the fort represented to reporters in 1996, according to a Le Monde article detailing a PR coup with then President and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and Alain Juppé.
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Presidents who have enjoyed staying here include Georges Pompidou and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who found the fort's beach too exposed and had another, secret one built in the rocks behind it.
Charles De Gaulle, meanwhile, loved the military site and its views from the gardens, but his wife reportedly preferred their secluded property in Colombey, Haute-Marne, for holidays. François Mitterrand and Mr Hollande also kept a relative distance, with only brief visits to the island.
One politician already allegedly eyeing the fort is Rassemblement National’s Marine Le Pen. In his 2024 book Ce que je cherche, the party’s president, Jordan Bardella, described a sailing trip near the island with Ms Le Pen, in which he asked if she believed she would ever stay there.
“Looking afar, her answer, simple, determined and beautiful: I am convinced I will,’” he wrote.
One thing the public has come to expect from the holiday retreat is a chance to see their leaders let loose – and it does not always look pretty.
The list of embarrassing paparazzi shots include Emmanuel Macron on a jet-ski, François Hollande in Bermuda shorts and a baggy polo shirt and Jacques Chirac entirely naked in 2001, while apparently eyeing up Michael Schumacher’s nearby yacht.
The latter picture was never released by Stéphane Ruet, the photographer who took it.
“I prefer the scene to remain in people's imaginations,” he told Le Figaro in 2018.
“When you talk to them about Brégançon, they immediately think of this story.”
The list of international guests, meanwhile, include former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl in 1985, during Mr Mitterrand’s only visit; the then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in August 2008 by Nicolas Sarkozy’s invitation; and British PM Theresa May (2018), Vladimir Putin (2019) and Angela Merkel (2020) during Emmanuel Macron’s first term.
The current fort was built on the island in 1483 as part of the French monarchy's coastal defence efforts.
The garrison was strengthened and the fort’s artillery improved by Napoléon Bonaparte, who became interested in Brégançon after the recapture of Toulon.
A small garrison also occupied the fort during World War One, but this was decommissioned in 1919, and from the 1920s (excluding World War Two) it was rented out and became a comfortable private residence.
While the exterior remains largely unchanged, the Var exhibition showed how the decor inside has changed over the years to accommodate the differing tastes of successive presidents and their spouses.
“It is military in its essence. Presidents have a single room. The rest is decorated with a lot of contemporary furniture, drawings, abstract art, rugs…,” said Fabienne Calvi, one of three guides at Bormes-les-Mimosas tourist office.
One room in the fort featured a Louis XV-style red leather desk where Georges Pompidou is said to have written his will in the summer of 1972.
Afterwards, the Salon de la Chapelle was redecorated to the taste of Anne-Aymone Giscard d’Estaing, Valéry’s wife, replacing the more contemporary style favoured by the Pompidous. Four 18th-century wooden armchairs were selected, reupholstered by Maison Braquenié in 1978 in a floral pattern.
The furniture in the fort comes from France’s Mobilier national, the statutory corporation responsible for the administration of all furniture and objects in the royal residences.
Indeed, crime writer and art historian Adrien Goetz, whose 2023 novel Intrigue à Brégançon is set on the island, has his main character Pénélope work as a curator for Mobilier National.
As research for the story, Mr Goetz was given accreditation to visit the fort and speak to guides. The resulting plot sees Pénélope charged with the modernisation of the fort until one guide is found dead inside.
“It is very tempting for a crime novelist to put a corpse here,” said Mr Goetz.
“It really is a secluded location. Fundamentally, killing someone at Brégançon is about preserving a secret. There is, most probably, something that is handed over from president to president.”
Ms Calvi agreed the fort makes an excellent setting for suspense and crime novels.
“It's shaped like a funnel. You get to the châtelet, to the second drawbridge, and you're trapped.”
She said that, despite the island now being synonymous with the presidency, most visitors are more interested in its earlier history.
The fort stands 35m above sea levelBonnaud/Shutterstock
Fort in Middle Ages
This dates back to 600AC, when it was identified as Pergantium by Greek geographer Stephanus of Byzantium.
In the Middle Ages, the site became a fortified seigneurial residence, first under the authority of the counts of Provence; it then entered the Crown’s estate in 1246, following the marriage of Béatrix de Provence to Charles d’Anjou, brother of Louis IX.
The recent opening up of the fort has given more people the chance to dig deeper into its history.
Mr Goetz spoke to the descendants of François de Leusse, a French captain who delivered the fort from Nazi occupation in 1944.
Meanwhile, Ms Calvi learned through the region’s archive that the fort was visited by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Louis IX of France – details overlooked by the Elysée on its official website.
“The fort was in the hands of pirates, privateers, Jean de Baudricourt, Napoleon, Henri I, Duke of Guise, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. It is a part of France’s history and heritage,” said Ms Calvi.
“[Our research] has turned this rock from a favourite of the Fifth Republic’s presidents to a place where hundreds of personalities from various political systems have also spent time.”
