Snapshot 1967: Turbulent love with Bardot and Sachs in Paris

In 1967, Brigitte Bardot and Gunter Sachs are the dream couple of the French glitterati. Wherever the actress and the playboy go, cameras flash – it’s French photographer Roger Viollet that captures them on this occasion…

At this point, they’re Paris’s most glamorous couple. However, a year after their flash wedding in Vegas, the whirlwind romance is beginning to show signs of strain. Together with Serge Gainsbourg, she famously records ‘Je t'aime moi non-plus’ – and begins a secret affair. Bardot pleads with Gainsbourg not to release the song; he agrees, and will later record the song with Jane Birkin, making musical history. Bardot’s marriage to Sachs, however, doesn’t last so long: it comes to an end in 1968, before the divorce is finalised in October 1969. 

Photo: REX/Roger Viollet