Chantal Nobel died on 30 April in Ramatuelle. She was 77.
The actress, known to millions of French viewers for her role in Châteauvallon in the mid-1980s, had lived for decades in the village next door to Saint-Tropez. She passed away peacefully in Ramatuelle, in the Var, surrounded by her family. Her daughter Anne-Charlotte announced the news in early May.
In 1985, at the height of her career, a terrible car accident alongside singer Sacha Distel turned her life upside down. Disabled at 80 per cent, she never returned to a film set. She had dreamed of coming back, cane in hand. But she did not crumble.
She rebuilt her life thanks to the last man she loved: Jean-Louis Julian, a jeweller well known in Saint-Tropez whom she met in 1977, and whom she married just six months after the crash. A jeweller of the peninsula, a determined philanthropist, his work in Africa earned him the Legion of Honour in 2007, he stood by her until his own death in May 2024.
In 2010, she had exceptionally agreed to open her home and garden to photographer Jacques Benaroch. Olive trees, terrace, southern light. A last known public photo session. A glimpse of a life she had chosen, far from the cameras, in the quiet of a village she loved.
The funeral took place on Thursday 7 May at 3pm, in the church of Ramatuelle. The service was followed by a burial in the village cemetery, in the strict privacy of the family.
