Built on a rocky peak, surrounded by terraced gardens, the place offers an exceptional view of the islands of Porquerolles, Port-Cros and Levant, as well as access to a private beach. Around the house, Brégançon has a small hectare of garden, with bougainvilleas, mimosas, Aleppo pines, laurels, agaves or olive trees. Simply and classically furnished – we owe its decoration to Anne-Aymone Giscard d’Estaing -, it guarantees the Head of State relative tranquility, the paparazzi having to “hide” offshore if they want to try to see him. .
General de Gaulle and François Mitterrand only stayed there for one night, and the Sarkozys preferred La Lanterne – the former residence of the prime ministers on the edge of Versailles park – and, above all, the Bruni-Tedeschi house in Cap Negro. But the Pompidou, Giscard d’Estaing and Chirac spent long holidays there. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing said “to taste perfect happiness there”, Jacques Chirac conceded “to get bored there sometimes”.
In the wake of his election, François Hollande chose to spend his first summer there with his ex-girlfriend, Valérie Trierweiler. Wanting to be a “normal” president, he posed in the press in a casual polo shirt, provoking the mockery of All-Paris. The couple did not like Brégançon, and François Hollande never set foot there again. “Brégançon is very good, except that you are locked up there like at the Élysée. But being on vacation means being able to escape, to be free,” he explained.
In 2014, in order to limit its operating costs (200,000 euros per year), François Hollande entrusted the Center des monuments nationaux (CMN) with the management of the fort and its surroundings, while retaining the possibility of using the premises in an exceptional way. Between 40,000 and 50,000 people then took the arduous path each year to visit the fort, the presidential residence since 1966. But after four years of opening, access to it was again limited with Emmanuel Macron in 2018. “The president and his wife want to be able to spend long weekends there, and receive foreign heads of state, ”we explained at the Élysée. The place, secluded and secure, had seduced them. After two summers, visits, subject to reservations, were relaunched in 2020.
For a few days, the presidential couple has found the Mediterranean Sea. The current head of state seems to appreciate the place, he who had already been there for the Pentecost weekend. In 2018, he even decided to build an above-ground swimming pool on the island. A choice criticized for its price (34,000 euros according to Le Parisien) but also and above all for its ecological impact. At a time when water sharing was already front and center, the move was seen by some as “out of touch” with an alarming reality.
