Louis de Funès became inseparable from Saint-Tropez through the success of Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez. Released in 1964, the comedy introduced audiences to Ludovic Cruchot, the energetic gendarme transferred to the fashionable Mediterranean village.

The film was a major success and was followed by five more Gendarme films. Saint-Tropez remained at the centre of the series, turning familiar streets, beaches and buildings into recurring film locations.

One building became particularly iconic: the former Gendarmerie Nationale on Place Blanqui. It served as the gendarmerie in the films and is still immediately recognisable from its façade.

Today, the building houses the Musée de la Gendarmerie et du Cinéma de Saint-Tropez. Its exhibitions explore both the history of the local gendarmerie and Saint-Tropez's much wider relationship with cinema.

Louis de Funès is naturally an important part of that story, but he is only one chapter. The museum also looks at the actors, directors and films connected with the town and at the period when cinema helped turn a Provençal fishing village into an international destination.

That makes the museum particularly interesting after exploring Saint-Tropez itself. Locations seen on screen are not isolated film sets. They are streets and places you can still walk past today.

For anyone interested in French cinema, Saint-Tropez is as much a film location as it is a seaside destination.

If you want to explore the film connection

Start · Musée de la Gendarmerie et du Cinéma
Look for · the former gendarmerie from Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez
Inside · exhibitions about Louis de Funès and cinema in Saint-Tropez
Continue · walk through locations around the old town and harbour
Also explore · the Brigitte Bardot era and And God Created Woman

Want to discover another chapter of Saint-Tropez cinema?
Discover Brigitte Bardot and Saint-Tropez →

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