If you’re planning on visiting Provence in the near future, you may not have thought of any wet weather plans. Well, just in case, why not follow this link to the home page of the Marseille Soap Museum? In actual fact, the story of soap-making in this part of the world is worth learning about rain or shine – Marseille soap is one of France’s most instantly-recognizable products, with its chunky cube shape and greenish hue.
Source: http://www.musee-savon-marseille.com/en/
Soap has been produced for over 100 years at the Marius Fabre factory in Salon-de-Provence and that heritage is clearly on display in the museum, itself housed on-site. Tools and machinery once used in the soap-making process are proudly exhibited – stamps for marking logos onto the finished products, soap presses, washboards, even period advertisements vaunting the virtues of different brands of soap.
For information on opening hours and how to get to the museum, just go to http://www.musee-savon-marseille.com/practical-information/en/ . The website also has a useful section on Provence’s other top attractions, including the stunningly-beautiful Luberon natural park (see below), which encompasses hills and mountains, hill-top villages and vineyards. Additionally, the world-famous Camargue natural park is less than an hour’s drive from Salon-de-Provence.