Long before travellers arrived in Saint-Tropez, many already had an image of what the village was supposed to look like. Cinema, photography, travel posters and postcards have played an important role in creating that image.

Vintage tourism posters presented the Côte d’Azur through strong colours and relatively simple scenes. Deep blue water, sailing boats, beaches and Mediterranean vegetation turned the coast into an instantly recognisable travel ideal.

Saint-Tropez added its own symbols. The ochre and terracotta houses around the old village, umbrella pines rising above the rooftops and boats crossing the Golfe de Saint-Tropez became recurring subjects for illustrators and photographers.

Cinema added another layer. Brigitte Bardot and Et Dieu... créa la femme introduced an international audience to a glamorous and unconventional Saint-Tropez, while Louis de Funès and the Gendarme de Saint-Tropez films created a very different, humorous image of the same village.

These references have never completely disappeared. Browse a postcard stand in Saint-Tropez today and contemporary photographs still sit beside reproductions of old posters, film images and illustrations inspired by earlier decades.

What is interesting is how much of the imagery remains recognisable in the real destination. The sailing boats are still there. So are the warm façades, pine trees, beaches and Mediterranean light.

The postcards may idealise Saint-Tropez, but many of the details that created its visual identity can still be found simply by walking through the village.

Look for the Saint-Tropez icons

Sailing boats · part of the Mediterranean image of the village
Warm façades · ochre, pink and terracotta around the old town
Umbrella pines · framing many of the classic views
Cinema · Bardot, Louis de Funès and decades of filmmaking
Vintage posters · the Côte d’Azur interpreted through graphic design
Postcards · keeping these familiar images in circulation

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