Napoleon’s lair where Theresa will do battle with Macron
( and where French Presidents can’t resist parading their beach bodies )
DURING its long history, medieval Fort Bregancon served as a stronghold to repel marauding Barbary pirates from North Africa who plagued the Mediterranean.
Later, during the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte so admired its strategic position that he installed 23 cannons there after taking nearby Toulon from the royalists.
It remained a military fortress until shortly after the First World War, when it had a small garrison.
Now the imposing building is a stronghold once more – this time of the European Union, in the guise of French President Emmanuel Macron, who meets Theresa May there tomorrow.
It is a rare visit by a British prime minister to his summer retreat – a sunnier, more imposing version of Chequers.
During the informal summit at the fort – a private residence of French presidents since 1968 – Mrs May will try to explain the advantages of the controversial Chequers agreement to Mr Macron.
Quite what broadsides will be fired during the meeting, let alone who emerges the victor, remains to be seen.
But we can, at least, give some idea of what Mrs May – who has cut short her summer holiday for the encounter – might expect to see when she gets there.
Fort Bregancon is perched on a rocky peak, 35m above sea level, with magnificent views over the turquoise Mediterranean.
Accessible via a narrow causeway from one of the most beautiful and unspoilt parts of the French Riviera, or – for those with the means – by helicopter (the fortified residence boasts its own heliport too), it is hidden from view by high walls, pines, bougainvillea and mimosa.
It also has its own beach, although, as we shall see, that has not always been quite as well guarded from prying eyes.
Given its exotic location and colourful past, perhaps it was not without justification that best-selling novelist Robert Harris tweeted this week: ‘Just passed the Fort Bregancon, summer residence of President Macron, which Brexiteers might think looks a bit like the HQ of a James Bond villain.’
As someone who favours Britain remaining in the EU, there was doubtless an element of mischiefmaking from the author of Enigma, about the Second World War codebreakers at Cambridge University and Bletchley Park. Certainly, it wasn’t lost on another Twitter user, who replied pithily: ‘Worst. Bond. Villain. Ever. Dr No Deal.’
Compared to its majestic setting, however, the interior of the ancient citadel might be considered a little disappointing, with none of the marble, gilding and elegant parquet floors of many French chateaux and palaces.
Instead, white walls and tiled floors in the Mediterranean style give it the air of a family home.
‘It is also the charm of the place,’ says Bernard Le Magoarou, administrator of national monuments for the Var region of southern France, in which the fort lies. ‘The president can live like ordinary people do, in a simple environment.’
According to Guillaume Daret, a French journalist and author of the book The Fort Of Bregancon – History, Secrets And Behind The Scenes Of Presidential Holidays, the building is not luxurious or ostentatious, but more like ‘a Provencal mansion, and the gardens and the 360-degree view are truly exceptional’.
Nevertheless, there is still plenty inside to catch the eye.
For example, interior photographs show a French tricolour banquette stretching almost the length of the vestibule. Mrs May might not find that as comfortable as one of the more conservative, and solidly blue, armchairs in the
presidential office, where she can admire contemporary artworks.
Perhaps she and Mr Macron will relax in the more informal setting of the green living room, with its sumptuous sofas. At least it now has a more contemporary feel than it did before a restyle in 2016.
PRIOR to that, the green living room had rather a naff chintz look to it, complete with noisily patterned rugs and busy curtains.
Although Mr Macron seems to like it, the fort has not always been appreciated by the other seven presidents who have used the presidential summer residence, from General Charles de Gaulle to Francois Hollande.
It has been state property since the French Revolution, but it was President de Gaulle who proposed making it an official residence.
However, de Gaulle’s first night there in 1964 was memorable for all the wrong reasons. His stay was hastily arranged to coincide with his attendance at the 20th anniversary of the Allied landings in Provence – but a tiny bed and swarms of mosquitoes are said to have ruined his sleep.
The experience inspired him to renovate the fort, says Mr Le Magoarou. Georges Pompidou and his wife stayed there several times, as did Mr Pompidou’s successor, Valery Giscard d’Estaing.
President Francois Mitterrand received the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at Fort Bregancon in August 1985.
Jacques Chirac and his wife Bernadette visited often during his presidency from 1995 to 2007, regularly meeting residents of the neighbouring village.
Nicolas Sarkozy, president from 2007 to 2012, used to go jogging and cycling there. After marrying supermodel-turned- singer Carla Bruni while in office, they were photographed splashing about in the sea together while on holiday at the fort.
It was also while at Fort Bregancon in 2011 that Miss Bruni was seen to be visibly pregnant, despite not yet having conformed she was expecting their first child. She also told a French magazine she was ‘incredibly lucky’ to have been able to stay there, rather than in the city, during her pregnancy.
But Francois Hollande, Mr Macron’s predecessor, stopped using the fort after he and his then girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler were snapped in their swimwear. She successfully sued French media for invasion of privacy. Socialist president Mr Hollande also decided in 2014 to entrust the fort’s management to France’s National Monuments Centre and to open it to the public during the summer.
Since then, however, the Elysee Palace has taken over the direct management of the fortress, which it says ‘is intended both to welcome the president for periods of rest, official meetings and small diplomatic summits’.
The fort is still open to the public on certain days for guided tours at £9 a head – although not, needless to say, when Mrs May visits tomorrow. The presidential retreat hit the headlines recently when Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte, demanded a swimming pool so they could avoid paparazzi photographs being taken of them at the fort’s private beach.
The Elysee Palace confirmed the cost totalling tens of thousands of pounds would be met by the French taxpayer, angering critics of Mr Macron, who already faces accusations that he is the ‘President of the Rich’.
Mrs May must simply be hoping that he does not pour cold water on her Brexit plans.