General de Gaulle had the Fort de Brégançon transformed into a residence by Pierre-Jean Guth, the architect of the French Navy and winner of the Prix de Rome, for 3 million francs. He decided so after having resided there on August 25, 1964, during the ceremonies commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the landing of Provence. Convinced of the usefulness of the fort by René-Georges Laurin, deputy-mayor of Saint-Raphaël, de Gaulle had it permanently assigned by decree of January 5, 1968, to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to serve as an official and vacation residence to the President of the French Republic.