Explore the history of soap down the ages at the Marius Fabre Marseille Soap Museum!

Everyday items can sometimes be taken for granted, and that’s definitely true of the humble bar of soap. However, at the Marius Fabre Marseille Soap Museum (http://www.musee-savon-marseille.com/en/ ), soap has pride of place, specifically the hard, cube-shaped version of soap known as Marseille soap.

Marius Fabre has been making this iconic Provençal product in its Salon-de-Provence factory in the south of France since 1900. The museum draws on the company’s experiences and history, and contains numerous exhibits designed to shed some light on the importance of soap to both society and the local economy. As well as the museum, there’s the opportunity to tour the factory and workshops, and also to try out some of the firm’s famous finished products, available from the shop.

Visiting the Marseille Soap Museum is made extremely easy thanks to the excellent local infrastructure. The town of Salon-de-Provence is accessible by public transport from Marseille, Avignon and Arles and is a short drive from Aix-en-Provence.

If you’re looking for inspiration for other places to visit when in Provence, such as the wonderful Camargue, a natural park inhabited by white horses like those pictured below, why not check out the ‘explore the surrounding area’ section of the website?