Brigitte Bardot to be buried by the sea in Saint-Tropez

French film legend Brigitte Bardot
The funeral ceremony for French film legend Brigitte Bardot will take place on January 7. -EPA

French film icon Brigitte Bardot, who died on Sunday aged 91, will be ‍buried in a cemetery by the sea in the French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez.

The funeral ceremony will take place on January 7 at 9pm AEDT ⁠at Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption church in Saint-Tropez, the municipality said in a statement.

The burial will be held in the strictest privacy but a tribute open to locals and fans will take place at the Pre des Pecheurs area in the old town quarter called La Ponche, ‌the historic centre ​of the former fishing village.

Bardot, who became a symbol of 1950s and ‍60s France, made her home in the resort in 1958 where she said she found solace among animals and dedicated her life to their welfare.

"She was lovely, lovely, there's no other word. Yes, we will really miss her," Saint-Tropez resident Philippe Volmier told Reuters.

Volmier said ​he had known her for 30 years ‌and used to see her walking her dogs on the beach.

"One time, she fell into the water with her ​dog. I had to pick her out," he added. "She was a friend who ‍helped people a lot."

President Emmanuel Macron said Bardot embodied "a life of freedom". "A French existence, a universal radiance. She moved us. We mourn a legend ​of ​the century," he added.

For much ​of the latter part of her life, ​she lived alone behind high walls in the resort, surrounded by a menagerie of cats, dogs and horses.

She told French weekly Paris Match in 2024 that she wanted to be buried in her garden.

The Var Prefecture told Reuters it had not received any request for a private burial, which would have been needed to bury her in her garden.