Les Bravades de Saint-Tropez

How the three days unfold

The frame is stable from one year to the next. Precise times are published by the town hall a few weeks ahead, but the structure does not move. And the route was not drawn for photographs: it links places that matter.

16 May opens the festival on Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, with the handing of the pike and the flag to the captain, then the first outings of the corps de bravade through the streets.

17 May is the big day. The corps gathers early on Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, then comes the solemn "musketeers' mass" at the parish church, where the bust of Saint Torpes rests, followed by the general procession across the village. The bust is carried through the streets, escorted by the bravadeurs. The corps regroups around 3.30pm, then the Grande Bravade sets off at 4pm and works the village until evening. Around midnight the pike and the flag are handed back.

18 May, the corps gathers one last time, climbs to the Chapelle Sainte-Anne for the thanksgiving mass, marches back down, and the festival closes with the vermouth of honour at Salle Jean Despas.

The noise, and why it matters

What stays with you after the Bravades is not the image, it is the sound. The bravadeurs fire black powder muskets in volleys, in narrow streets where the façades throw the detonation back. Shop windows rattle, children jump, conversations stop dead.

This is not staging. The musket fire is the tribute paid to the saint and to the men who defended the village: the noise is the message.

How to read a bravade column

From the outside the column looks like one mass of men in uniform. It is nothing of the sort. This is not a troop of extras hired for the occasion but a village institution, and membership passes down through families: a man who becomes a bravadeur stays one for life. Every role is identifiable, and telling them apart changes what you are watching.

The captain of the town commands. His is the post created in 1558, and he receives the pike and the flag at the start of the festival to hand them back at the end.

The musketeers make up the bulk of the firing line, the ones producing the volleys.

The sailors are a reminder that Saint-Tropez is a port first, and that its defence was fought on the water as much as on land. To understand where those corsairs came from, the maritime history museum in the Citadelle does the job better than any guide.

The drums and fifes set the pace and hold it for hours.

The women and children in Provençal costume walk ahead of the whole column. That is not decoration: it is the part that shows the festival belongs to the entire village, not only to its men under arms.

And at the centre, the bust of Saint Torpes. Everything else is organised around it. It also explains the emotion, plainly visible, on some faces: cousins meet here, a man takes his father's place here, an absence is marked here. An attentive visitor notices within ten minutes.

Insider advice

• 16, 17 and 18, whatever the weekday. If the 17th falls on a Tuesday, the Grande Bravade happens on a Tuesday.
• The morning of the 17th if you can only come once. The musketeers' mass and the general procession hold everything.
• Stand along the route, not at the assembly point. The gathering squares are packed and the view is poor. A street in the centre, slightly ahead of the column, gives you far more, with the acoustics thrown in.
• Let the column through. This is the Tropeziens' main complaint: you do not step into the path of a corps de bravade to frame a photograph, you do not follow the bearers of the bust, and you do not walk into the mass as though it were entertainment.
• Do not leave after the Grande Bravade on the 17th. The morning of the 18th at Sainte-Anne is the most moving moment of the three days, and the least crowded.
• Ear protection if you come with young children, and no baby in the front row of a narrow lane.
• Book your accommodation well ahead. Mid-May is not high season, but on those three nights the village is full, and so are the restaurants.
• Keep half a day to walk. The coastal path starts at the Graniers beach, fifteen minutes on foot from the centre, and nobody is on it at this time of year.

Coming in mid-May

In mid-May the road is not yet the ordeal it becomes in August: the two-lane departmental roads into the village stay drivable, and parking can be found.

During the three days, however, much of the old town is closed to traffic while the columns are out. The useful reflex: park at the edge of the village and do the rest on foot. Better still, stay on the far side of the gulf and come in on the shuttle boat from Sainte-Maxime, a fifteen-minute crossing, one to four sailings an hour.

Access, car parks and prices are set out in our practical guide.