Time to pull out the glamorous face masks, St-Tropez is the latest French town to require them in all public places.

Known for high-end beach clubs, celebrity sightings and its massive Tuesday and Saturday Provençal market, St-Tropez is synonymous with the good life on the French Riviera. Now it is also known as one of the latest French towns to have adopted an obligatory mask-wearing rule in all public indoor and outdoor spaces.

After a spate of widely-publicised positive Covid tests cropped up in local restaurants, forcing reclosures and scaring off tourists, the town responded by making face masks mandatory as of last Saturday.

Posters to that effect were scattered all over the central town square, the open-air market, the port, and on the streets harbouring the boutiques and galleries frequented by the rich and glam.

The order was issued by the Prefecture of the Var, taking the decision out of the town’s hands and making the transition almost immediate. Police were giving free masks to visitors who did not have one, but as of Monday, they have started handing out €135 fines for non-compliance.

France saw nearly 10,000 new cases last week and is on the verge of being put on the UK quarantine list.