The China Mail - Brigitte Bardot buried in Saint-Tropez as cause of death revealed

A day of commemorations began with a traditional Catholic service at the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption church where her unusual wicker coffin was received by her long-estranged son.

A hearse then carried the reclusive star of the late 1950s and 60s to her family's Mediterranean seaside grave for a private ceremony attended by family and close friends.

Hundreds of people, many with their pets, watched proceedings on a giant screen at the yacht-filled Saint-Tropez port, which the blonde star helped transform into a world-famous playground for the rich.

"What I remember most is what she did for animals, she had a real sensitivity. A small streak of racism too, but it wasn't malicious — she wasn't just that," Sandrine, a school assistant who had travelled several hours to attend, told AFP.

The 60-year-old from the Pyrenees mountains said she had expected a larger public turn-out, suggesting some had stayed away because of criticism and media coverage of her political views and convictions for inciting racial hatred.

- 'No frills' event -

Bardot's best-known associations -- to the heyday of the New Wave French film industry, animal rights campaigning, and far-right politics -- were all represented at Friday's church service.

The son of late film star Jean-Paul Belmondo attended, as did far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen, and a host of animal rights campaigners whose work Bardot helped publicise through her own foundation.

Paul Watson, the Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd charity, a "brother in arms" in the fight against whaling and seal slaughter, was among the 400 invitees for what organisers had promised would be a "no frills" event.

"Brigitte was my friend for 50 years," he told AFP, adding that he had attended "to recognise her incredible contribution to protecting animals around the world".

He and others filed into the church past a photo of a smiling Bardot with one of her dogs, while an iconic image of her cuddling a baby seal was placed near the pulpit and on the front of the service booklet.

A public commemoration in a park will round out the day of tributes and remembrance later Wednesday for a woman considered both a symbol of Saint-Tropez as well as the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

- Cancer battle -

On the eve of the commemorations, Bardot's fourth husband, former far-fight political advisor Bernard d'Ormale, revealed the cause of her death.

Bardot had undergone two operations for an unspecified cancer before the disease "took her", d'Ormale told Paris Match magazine in an interview about their life together.

She had insisted on returning home to die at her beloved villa known as "la Madrague", despite being in physical discomfort.

D'Ormale was seated on the front row on Wednesday alongside Bardot's only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, who attended with his children and grandchildren.

Charrier, 65, was brought up by his father, film director Jacques Charrier, and lives in Oslo.

Bardot had compared pregnancy to carrying a "tumour that fed on me" and called parenthood a "misery", living most of her life with no contact with her son.

They drew closer in the final years of her life and he sobbed at the start of Wednesday's service.

- Divisive -

The lack of a state commemoration for Bardot, one of the country's best-known celebrities, as well as the mixed public reaction to her death reflect her divisive character and much-debated legacy.

Most observers agree that she was a cinema legend who came to embody the swinging 60s in France and a form of female emancipation through her acting and daring, unconventional persona.

But after she was convicted five times for racist hate speech, particularly about Muslims, left-wing figures have offered only muted tributes -- and sometimes none at all.

President Emmanuel Macron's office offered to organise a national homage similar to one staged for fellow New Wave hero Belmondo in 2021, but the idea was snubbed by Bardot's family.

Bardot was buried at a seaside cemetery in Saint-Tropez alongside her parents and grandparents despite previously saying she wanted to avoid creating a public site of commemoration.

In her typically outspoken style, she said she worried about a "crowd of idiots" trampling on the tombs of her ancestors.

N.Lo--ThChM