An Indian Romance In Saint Tropez

It’s a breathtaking scene. The sun slowly paints the skies in a myriad of colours. The Côte d’Azur retains its variations of blue. The smell of the wine slowly fills the air as the sunflowers dip in their ranks. Charming powder-soft sand on the glitzy beaches looks inviting. A citadel dominates the hillside. The Italian baroque-style church overlooks the small old town. Picturesque Sycamore trees line up the town square. The town’s homes bathe in the Mediterranean warmth and light. High above the hills filled with vineyards and lavender fields, the world’s most renowned architects have created elegant villas and architectural masterpieces. A couple of Peacocks appear out of nowhere to settle on the top of a vehicle. People play the gentle game of pétanque beneath the trees. The long summer shadows all on the open-air Provencal market. The town is littered with art galleries in every narrow medieval alleyway. The maze of cobbled streets leads to charming luxury boutiques. Shops appear to concentrate on boxes and offer exquisite cardboard containers of every size. Legendary multi-starred and multi-forked gourmet establishments along the pretty old port entice us. The smell of freshly brewed coffee and the shade of the pergola of many cafe and bar terraces lure us. This is the place to laze on a sunbed, soak up the atmosphere, let the hours squander away, and spend time watching the world go by.

This is the old-school magnificence that the French do so pleasingly well.

This is Saint-Tropez.

Located on the western shores of the French Riviera, Saint Tropez is one of the most famous coastal resort towns on Earth. It is a place of rich history and timeless allure. Its mesmerising quaint beauty has attracted creative minds for years. Since the 19th century, artists gravitated to this one-time fishing village on the Côte d’Azur. Paul Signac, Matisse, Bonnard, Hockney, Théo Van Rysselberghe, and Picasso were entranced by the extraordinary light of Saint Tropez. It also became the muse for writers including Colette, Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Françoise Sagan, and the famous filmmaker Orson Welles was inspired by the dreamlike landscape to illustrate a special book ‘Les Bravades’, for his daughter Rebecca during the Christmas of 1956. Also in 1956, Brigitte Bardot's appearance in the Roger Vadim film ‘God Created Woman’ transformed the quiet fishing village into a select destination for the rich and famous of the world. Audrey Hepburn, Jean-Paul Sartre, Coco Chanel, Jean Cocteau, Clark Gable Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy, Romy Schneider, Jan Birkin, and Princess Grace of Monaco with their heavy monogrammed trunks were drawn to Saint Tropez.

Today the seaside town of St. Tropez on the Mediterranean is a dream hotspot for the global elite, including iconic personalities from the world of business, music, film and fashion. Paparazzi here have been known to chase famous faces and influencers such as Johnny Hallyday, Giorgio Armani, Elton John, Bono, Sting, Jack Nicholson, Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid and Leonardo DiCaprio held his Foundation Gala in Saint Tropez from 2015-2017, bringing stars for environmental philanthropy. The glittering tapestry of weddings in St Tropez’s includes Mick Jagger with Bianca Pérez-Mora Macías, Pamela Anderson's union with Rick Salomon, and the nuptials of Victoria and David Beckham. In 2022, top Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel and fashion designer Sarah Staudinger exchanged vows in Saint Tropez. The star-studded reception for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes was held in Saint Tropez. The Beckhams own a lavish estate in Saint Tropez, celebrated for its breath-taking vistas and the Bardot the iconic starlet of yesteryear now lives in a villa by the sea nearby. It is often said that no one in the world is recognised as a billionaire unless their super luxury yachts are anchored in Saint Tropez.  Tourists from all over the world keep coming back year after year to walk in the footsteps of celebrities, royalty, and jetsetters and soak in the effortless elegance of Saint Tropez.

Beyond the fusion of celebrity culture and extravagance in another part of the town the residents of Saint-Tropez softly retell the lesser-known romantic story uniting France with India.

Over two hundred years ago, on 16 March 1822, Jean Francois Allard, a thirty-seven-year-old Frenchman born in Saint Tropez, was received in the Lahore Durbar by Maharaja Ranjit Singh who wore the famed diamond Kohinoor on his arm. One of the richest kingdoms of the world it was secured by a valiant army led by General Hari Singh Nalva. However, Maharaja Ranjit Singh had to fortify his lands against the possible onslaught by the highly trained and professional army of the British East India Company that was insatiably moving northwards. Allard, a charming Persian-speaking army man had landed in India with a sterling reputation. He had bravely fought in Naples, Spain, and Portugal before joining Napoleon’s Imperial Guard. He had served as an aide to Napoleon 1 in Waterloo.

Suitably impressed by the Frenchman, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, gave the seafaring Allard unrestricted authority to modernise the armed forces and make them invincible. Introducing the French drill and training, Allard created the ‘the French Legion’, also known as Fauj-I-Khas, or Royal Brigade (Special Forces). The blue with red facings uniform of his soldiers was inspired by the uniform of Napoleon’s Grande Armee. French terminology was used in the words of command. The standards of the regiments were the tricolour French flag, inscribed with the motto ‘Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh’. And the army was trained by Allard to unleash hell on the enemy at the beat of a drum. Allard’s Cuirassiers, won their battle honours on the battlefields of Naushehra (1823), Dera Ismail Khan, Multan, and Peshawar (1837-9), in the conquest of Kulu and Mandi (1841) and later reached their zenith during in the First Sikh War (1845-6). General Allard became Maharaja’s favourite General and was bestowed with the highest award in the Kingdom, ‘Kaukab-e-Iqbal-e-Punjab’ (Bright Star of Punjab).

During his stay in India, Allard encountered the beautiful Princess Bannou Pan Dei. Captivated by her beauty, he began writing romantic verses in Urdu and Persian. They were married in March 1826 and moved to the opulent Kapurthala house in the Anarkali residential district of Lahore. In 1834, Allard and Bannou Pan Dei, along with their four children and two attendants travelled back to Saint Tropez for French education. Having settled his family in a huge mansion in Saint Tropez, Allard returned to Lahore with gifts and a letter from Louis Philippe, the King of France for Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Allard received the Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur from King Louis Philippe and was appointed Political Agent of the French government at the Lahore Durbar. The nearly fifty-four-year-old Allard died while serving in Peshawar on 23 January 1839 due to heart failure. Gun salutes were fired at every station as the cortege reached Lahore for a grand burial. Unable to accept the death of her husband, the heartbroken Princess Bannou Pan Dei kept looking out at the harbour in Saint Tropez waiting for Allard's return. It was not to be. On 13 January 1884, she passed away and was buried in the Allard family tomb in the ‘Cimetiere Marin’ of Saint Tropez.

Days end. Pictures fade. Legends are forgotten and history moves on. Yet stories of extraordinary persons live on even a century later. The legend of the illustrious son of Saint Tropez General Jean Francois Allard, his Indian wife Princess Bannou Pan Dei and the Lion of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjit Singh is kept alive in the form of marble busts in a garden on a prominent cross street in the town of Saint Tropez.

One of the world’s most iconic destinations St Tropez is well-known for its annual sailing regattas, including the Rolex Cup and the Voiles de Saint-Tropez. There are also some more traditional festivals such as the Bravades. Proud of the links that have united it with India since the 19^th century, the City of Saint-Tropez, in partnership with the Indian Embassy in France, now organises Nirvana the Festival de la Culture et du Cinema Indiens, a festival giving pride of place to Indian cinema, music, fashion, dance gastronomy and yoga. In its second edition, the Mayor of Saint Tropez will honour Lord Rami Ranger of the United Kingdom and the Academy Award-nominated Indian filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker with the Medal of Saint Tropez at Nirvana 2024. The festival will also feature screenings of the internationally acclaimed Parched by Leena Yadav, India’s latest Oscar entry, 2018 Everyone is a Hero, by Jude Anthany Joseph, Retour a Pondicherry by Raghunath Manet and Swades starring Shah Rukh Khan. National Award-winning producer Sunita Gowariker, Cinematographer Aseem Bajaj, producer Gulab Singh Tanwar, French actor Marianne Borgo, British film producer Claire Evans and American film distributor Marie Adler will participate in the events. An additional highlight is the presence of Pradeep Narain, the grandson of the famous Indian revolutionary Lala Har Dayal who spent some years of his exile in France and the island of La Martinique. Indian Ambassador to France and Monaco, Jawed Ashraf will be the Chief Guest.

Nirvana in Saint Tropez is scheduled from 31 May – 2 June 2024.

Dr Bhuvan Lall is an award-winning author, filmmaker, biographer and the Director of the Nirvana Indian Film and Cultural Festival in Saint Tropez.

Bhuvan Lall

Guest Author