Fort de Brégançon is beautiful, secluded and a perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of Paris. It’s also been a pain in the derrière for French president after French president.
It’s also old and needs a lot of maintenance — according to a 2018 report in Le Point, annual running costs could be as high as €700,000.
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to coastal retreat for talks on Thursday, here are some of the more problematic moments from down on the French Riviera.
Naked Chirac
In 2001, Jacques Chirac was photographed on the terrace of the fort looking through binoculars at what was reported to be a yacht owned by Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher out in the Mediterranean. Chirac was completely naked and — scarcely believably — French media refused to publish the photos. Le Canard Enchaîné said the photographs “show the president in the most basic of all attires and displaying the principal organs of state.”
Show-off Sarkozy
Not every French president is a fan of Fort de Brégançon. Nicolas Sarkozy would often head elsewhere for vacation, but, ever the media manipulator, he did realize the fort’s value as the place to be seen. So when Carla Bruni was pregnant, they headed to the Riviera to be seen. The photos were put straight on the cover of Paris Match and appeared to show Sarkozy (1.66 m tall) and Bruni (1.75 m) at almost the same height. So maybe the beach has a slope.
Unfashionable Hollande
When they do have their clothes on, French presidents are supposed to be chic and sophisticated. Then there’s poor François Hollande, who was snapped in 2012 with ex-partner Valérie Trierweiler wearing the ultimate dad-on-holiday wardrobe. It wasn’t a great holiday for Hollande. Local press reported that the driver who was delivering 14 boxes of expensive cushions to the fort got lost (maybe he confused it with some other medieval fortress owned by the president!). And we all know that there’s nothing ordinary people enjoy more than seeing their leaders splash the cash on haberdashery — especially if they are socialists!
Wet Macron
In 2018, the weekly newspaper Journal du Dimanche reported that Macron and his wife, Brigitte, ordered up a swimming pool for the garden at the Fort de Brégançon. Although the fort comes with a private beach, the Macrons wanted a swimming environment with more privacy for their grandchildren — via Brigitte Macron’s first marriage. The above-ground pool (one can’t be dug into the ground) — at 10 meters long, four metres wide and 1.5 metres deep and with a total construction cost of €34,000 — was a necessary expense, the president’s office said, as going down to the residence’s private beach involved deploying plenty of security, at an even greater cost. Mind you, €34,000 seems a bargain considering some of Macron’s other expenditures — including as much as €500,000 replacing the tableware at the Elysée presidential palace, according to Le Canard Enchainé.
And now Macron’s down at the fort again. This week’s Paris Match features a photo of the president and his wife in matching white shirts looking spectacularly awkward. He’ll be hoping there are no more mishaps.