CARCASSONA, THE OCCITAN FORTIFIED CITY IN AUDE

This morning, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have visited Carcassona, one of the most wonderful and mysterious places in Occitània.

It is a visit that all three wanted to do: Joseph for the history of the city and the Cathars, Claire for the role-playing game and the locations of the film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, and The Grandma for Occitan literature.

They have enjoyed a fantastic breakfast, have walked through historical sites and have been carried away by the magic and mystery that surrounds this walled city.

In the afternoon, the three friends have rested at the hotel while have been watching the Northern Star, which has had a very important match against the biggest rival today. She has done a great job, as always, and it has been a very interesting match for tactical football lovers.

After the match, they have left for Perpinyà where they will visit some friends tonight, in which will be the last stage of this trip through Provençal, Occitan and Catalan lands before returning to Barcelona.

Carcassona is an Occitan fortified city in the department of Aude.

Inhabited since the Neolithic Period, Carcassona is located in the plain of the Aude between historic trade routes, linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea and the Massif Central to the Pyrénées. Its strategic importance was quickly recognised by the Romans, who occupied its hilltop until the demise of the Western Roman Empire. In the fifth century, the region of Septimania was taken over by the Visigoths, who founded the city of Carcassona in the newly established Visigothic Kingdom.

Its citadel, known as the Vila de Carcassona, is a medieval fortress dating back to the Gallo-Roman period and restored by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc between 1853 and 1879. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997 because of the exceptional preservation and restoration of the medieval citadel. Consequently, Carcassona relies heavily on tourism but also counts manufacturing and winemaking as some of its other key economic sectors.

The first signs of settlement in this region have been dated to about 3500 BC, but the hill site of Carsac -a Celtic place-name that has been retained at other sites in the south- became an important trading place in the sixth century BC. The Volcae Tectosages fortified it and made it into an oppidum, a hill fort, which is when it was named Carsac.

The folk etymology -involving a châtelaine named Lady Carcas, a ruse ending a siege, and the joyous ringing of bells (Carcas sona)- though memorialized in a neo-Gothic sculpture of Mme. Carcas on a column near the Narbonna Gate, is a modern reconstruction of a 16th-century depiction. The name can be derived as an augmentative of the name Carcas.

Carcassona became strategically identified when the Romans fortified the hilltop around 100 BC and eventually made it the colonia of Julia Carsaco, later Carcaso, later Carcasum by the process of swapping consonants known as metathesis. The main part of the lower courses of the northern ramparts dates from Gallo-Roman times. In AD 462 the Romans officially ceded Septimania to the Visigothic king Theodoric II who had held Carcassonne since AD 453.

Theodoric is thought to have begun the predecessor of the basilica that is now dedicated to Saint Nazaire. In AD 508 the Visigoths successfully foiled attacks by the Frankish king Clovis I. In Francia, the Arab and Berber Muslim forces invaded the region of Septimania in AD 719 and deposed the local Visigothic Kingdom in AD 720; after the Frankish conquest of Narbona in 759, the Muslim Arabs and Berbers were defeated by the Christian Franks and retreated to Andalusia after 40 years of occupation, and the Carolingian king Pepin the Short came up reinforced.

A medieval fiefdom, the county of Carcassona, controlled the city and its environs. It was often united with the county of Razès. The origins of Carcassona as a county probably lie in local representatives of the Visigoths, but the first count known by name is Bello of the time of Charlemagne. Bello founded a dynasty, the Bellonids, which would rule many honoures in Septimania and Catalonia for three centuries. 

In 1067, Carcassona became the property of Raimond-Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes, through his marriage with Ermengard, sister of the last count of Carcassona. In the following centuries, the Trencavel family allied in succession with either the counts of Barcelona or of Tolosa. They built the Château Comtal and the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus. In 1096, Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of the new cathedral.

Carcassona became famous for its role in the Albigensian Crusades when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars. In August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal Legate, abbot Arnaud Amalric, besieged the city. Viscount Raymond-Roger de Trencavel was imprisoned while negotiating his city's surrender and died in mysterious circumstances three months later in his dungeon. The people of Carcassona were allowed to leave -in effect, expelled from their city with nothing more than the shirts on their backs. Simon de Montfort was appointed the new viscount and added to the fortifications.

In 1240, Trencavel's son tried unsuccessfully to reconquer his old domain. The city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247. Carcassona became a border fortress between France and the Crown of Aragon under the 1258 Treaty of Corbeil. King Louis IX founded the new part of the town across the river. He and his successor Philip III built the outer ramparts. Contemporary opinion still considered the fortress impregnable. During the Hundred Years' War, Edward the Black Prince failed to take the city in 1355, although his troops destroyed the lower town.

In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees transferred the border province of Rosselló to France, and Carcassona's military significance was reduced. Its fortifications were abandoned and the city became mainly an economic center of the woollen textile industry, for which a 1723 source quoted by Fernand Braudel found it the manufacturing centre of Languedoc. It remained so until the Ottoman market collapsed at the end of the eighteenth century, then reverted to a country town. The town hall, known as Hôtel de Rolland, was completed in 1761.

More information: Remparts Carcassone

On voit la ville de la-haut,
Derrière les montagnes bleues;
Mais, pour y parvenir, il faut,
Il faut faire cinq grandes lieues,
En faire autant pour revenir!
Ah! si la vendange était bonne!
Le raisin ne veut pas jaunir
Je ne verrai pas Carcassonne!

They see the town from up on high,
Behind the range of mountains blue;
But, to arrive there by and by,
Some five great leagues I’ll have to do;
And do as much just to come back!
Ah!  Had the grapes in plenty grown!
They all that yellow ripeness lack:
I never will see Carcassonne!

Gustave Nadaud

CHARLES TRENET & 'LA MER, BERGÈRE D'AZUR INFINIE...'

One of the things that catches your eye when you drive along the A9 past Béziers and before reaching Narbona is a service centre named Charles Trenet in honour of the fantastic singer born in this same city. The service centre contains an exhibition evoking his life and work, as well as sculptures by Pascale and Thierry Delorme. After visiting Narbona and on the way to Carcassona leaving the A9 for a while, it is essential to talk about this Narbona artist who is the author of thousands of beautiful songs, including La Mer.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have decided that Charles Trenet will be their soundtrack between Narbona and Carcassona and, truly, they have chosen an incomparable company. 

Louis Charles Augustin Georges Trenet (18 May 1913-19 February 2001) was a renowned Occitan singer-songwriter who composed both the music and the lyrics for nearly 1,000 songs over a career that lasted more than 60 years. These songs include Boum! (1938), La Mer (1946) and Nationale 7 (1955). Trenet is also noted for his work with musicians Michel Emer and Léo Chauliac, with whom he recorded Y'a d'la joie (1938) for the first and La Romance de Paris (1941) and Douce France (1947) for the latter. He was awarded an Honorary Molière Award in 2000.

Trenet was born in Avenue Charles Trenet, Narbona, Occitània, the son of Françoise Louise Constance (Caussat) and Lucien Etienne Paul Trenet. When he was age seven, his parents divorced, and he was sent to boarding school in Béziers, but he returned home just a few months later, suffering from typhoid fever. It was during his convalescence at home that he developed his artistic talents, such as performing music, painting and sculpting. His mother remarried, and he lived with her and his stepfather, writer Benno Vigny.

In 1922, Trenet moved to Perpinyà, this time as a day pupil. André Fons-Godail, the Catalan Renoir and a friend of the family, took him for excursions with painting. His poetry is said to have the painter's eye for detail and colour. Many of his songs refer to his surroundings such as places near Narbona, the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean coast.

He passed his baccalauréat with high marks in 1927. After leaving school, he left for Berlin, where he studied art, and later, he also briefly studied at art schools in France. When Trenet first arrived in Paris in the 1930s, he worked in a movie studio as a props handler and assistant, and later joined the artists in the Montparnasse neighbourhood. His admiration of the surrealist poet and Catholic mystic Max Jacob (1876-1944) and his love of jazz were two factors that influenced Trenet's songs.

In November 2000, the Narbona house in which Trenet was born, which had become 13 Avenue Charles Trenet, was turned into a small museum. Visitors could view souvenirs from Trenet's childhood and family life -especially those belonging to his mother, who had spent most of her life in the house- as well as original drafts of the songs that made his career.

Trenet died three months later, on 19 February 2001.

Trenet's best-known songs are Boum!, La Mer, Y'a d'la joie, Que reste-t-il de nos amours?, Ménilmontant and Douce France. His catalog of songs is enormous, numbering close to 1,000.

More information: The Guardian

La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie

The sea
That we see dancing along the clear gulfs
Having silver reflections
The sea
Changing reflections
Under the rain

Charles Trenet

FROM COLONIA NARBO MARTIUS TO OCCITAN NARBONA

Visiting Narbona is experiencing Occitan history at its best. 

It is a must go up 170 steps to the Gilles Aycelin, keep and see the Tour Saint-Martial, Gothic Narbona Cathedral, its Saint-Pasteur cloister and the Archbishop's Palace.

Walking through streets full of history, between palaces and Gothic architecture, savouring the excellent local cuisine and resting by the canal while reading some beautiful troubadour poems is an indescribable pleasure that Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma did not want to miss.

Narbona is an amazing city with a fascinating history and warm and welcoming people who will make your stay an unforgettable memory.

Narbona is a commune and subprefecture in Occitània. It is located about 15 km from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was historically a prosperous port city.  From the 14th century onwards, it declined following a change in the course of the river Aude. While it is the largest commune in Aude, the capital of the Aude department is the smaller commune of Carcassonne.

The etymology of the town's original name, Narbo, is lost in antiquity, and it may have referred to a hillfort from the Iron Age close to the location of the current settlement or its occupants. The earliest known record of the area comes from the Ancient Greek historian and geographer Hecataeus of Miletus (5th century BCE), who identified it as a Celtic harbour and marketplace at that time, and called its inhabitants Ναρβαῖοι.

The ancient city of Narbona was established in Gaul by the Roman Republic in 118 BCE, as Colonia Narbo Martius, colloquially Narbo, and made into the capital of the newly established Roman province of Gallia Transalpina (modern-day southeastern France). It was located on the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in Gaul, built at the time of the foundation of the colony, and connecting Roma to Tarraco. Geographically, Narbona was therefore located at a very important crossroads because it was situated where the Via Domitia connected to the Via Aquitania, which led toward the Atlantic through the cities of Tolosa and Burdigala.

Politically, Narbona gained importance as a competitor to Massilia (today Marselha). Julius Caesar settled veterans from his 10th Legion there and attempted to develop its port while Marselha was supporting Pompey. Among the products of Narbona, its rosemary-flower honey was famous among Romans. Later, the Roman province of Gallia Transalpina was renamed Gallia Narbonensis after the city, which became its capital. Seat of a powerful administration, the city enjoyed economic and architectural expansion.

According to Hydatius, in 462 AD the city was handed over to the Visigoths by a local military leader in exchange for support; as a result Roman rule ended in medieval France. It was subsequently the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom of Septimania, the only territory from Gaul to fend off the attacks of the Christian Franks after the Battle of Vouille (507).

In 531, the Frankish king Childebert I invaded Septimania and defeated the Visigothic king, Amalaric, near Narbona and occupied the city. However, after Childebert's continued invasion to Catalonia failed, Amalaric's successor Theudis was able to reclaim the rich province of Septimania, including Narbona, to the Visigothic Kingdom.

The region of Septimania was the last unconquered province of the Visigothic Kingdom. The incursion into Septimania was motivated by the need to secure their territorial gains in Iberia. Arab and Berber Muslim forces began to campaign in Septimania in 719. 

The region was invaded by the Andalusian Muslims in 719, renamed as Arbūnah and turned into a military base for future operations by the Andalusian military commanders. It passed briefly to the Emirate of Córdoba, which had been expanding from the south during the same century, before its subsequent conquest by the Christian Franks in 759, who by the end of the 9th century renamed it as Gothia or Marca Gothica. After the Frankish conquest of Narbona in 759, the Muslim Arabs and Berbers were defeated by the Christian Franks and retreated to their Andalusian heartland after forty years of occupation, and the Carolingian king Pepin the Short came up reinforced.

The Carolingian king Pepin the Short chased the Muslim Arabs and Berbers away from Septimania and conquered Narbona in 759, after which the city became part of the Frankish Viscounty of Narbona. Septimania became a march of the Carolingian Empire and then West Francia down to the 13th century, though it was culturally and politically autonomous from the northern France-based central royal government. The region was under the influence of the people from the count territories of Tolosa, Provence, and ancient County of Barcelona. It was part of the wider cultural and linguistic region known as Occitània. This area was finally brought under effective control of the French kings in the early 13th century as a result of the Albigensian Crusade, after which it was assigned governors. 

Narbona became a major center of Jewish learning in Western Europe. In the 12th century, the court of Ermengarde of Narbona (r. 1134–1192) presided over one of the cultural centres where the spirit of courtly love was developed. In the 11th and 12th centuries, Narbona was home to an important Jewish exegetical school, which played a pivotal role in the growth and development of the Zarphatic (Judæo-French) and Shuadit (Judæo-Provençal) languages in medieval France.  

Jews had settled in Narbona from about the 5th century CE, with a community that numbered about 2,000 people in the 12th century. At this time, Narbona was frequently mentioned in medieval Talmudic works in connection with its scholars. One source, Abraham ibn Daud of Toledo, gives them an importance similar to the Jewish exilarchs of Babylon. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the community went through a series of ups and downs before settling into extended decline.

More information: Aude Tourisme

Per solatz revelhar,
Que s'es trop enformitz,
E per pretz, qu'es faiditz
Acolhir e tornar,
Me cudei trebalhar.

To wake delight once more,
That's been too long asleep,
And worth that's exiled deep
To gather and restore:
These thoughts I've laboured for.

Guiraut de Bornelh

VIA DOMITIA, THE FIRST ROMAN ROAD BUILT IN GAUL

Today, the day is cloudy and the temperature ranges between 11 and 12 degrees. Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma are travelling to Narbona, the next city they will visit on their way back to Barcelona, and they are doing so by crossing Occitania on the A9, the highway that runs along what in Roman times was the road that connected Tarraco with Rome through Gallia Narbonensis, the Via Domitia.

The Via Domitia was the first Roman road built in Gaul, to link Roma and Tarraco through Gallia Narbonensis, across what is now Southern France. The route that the Romans regularized and paved was ancient when they set out to survey it, and traces the mythic route travelled by Heracles.

The construction of the road was commissioned by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, whose name it bore, following the defeat of the Allobroges and Averni by himself and Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus in 122 BCE.

Domitius also established a fortified garrison at Narbo (modern Narbonne) on the coast, near Hispania, to guard construction of the road. It soon developed into a full Roman colony Colonia Narbo Martius. The lands on the western part of the route, beyond the River Rhône had been under the control of the Averni who, according to Strabo, had stretched their control to Narbo and the Pyrenees.

Crossing the Alps by the easiest passage, the Col de Montgenèvre (1850 m), the Via Domitia followed the valley of the Durance, crossed the Rhône at Beaucaire passed through Nîmes (Nemausus) then followed the coastal plain along the Gulf of Lion. At Narbona, it met the Via Aquitania (which led toward the Atlantic Ocean through Tolosa and Bordeaux). Thus Narbona was a crucial strategic crossroads of the Via Domitia and the Via Aquitania, and it was an accessible, but easily defensible port at that time.

This cusp point in the Roman westwards expansion and ensuing supply, communication and fortification was a very important asset, and was treated as such. In between the cities that it linked, the Via Domitia was provided with a series of mansiones at distances of a day's journey for a loaded cart, at which shelter, provender and fresh horses could be obtained for travellers on official business.

The route as it was in Late Antiquity is represented in schematic fashion on the Tabula Peutingeriana.

More information: Roamin' The Empire

"A road," said the Roman engineer, "is a promise."

"A promise," answered the philosopher, "is a road."

'LO TEMPS S'ES PERDUT', A POEM BY AURÉLIA LASSAQUE

Visiting Montpelhièr is getting to know part of our history. The city was a very important cultural centre during the Middle Ages and its language and architecture are witnesses to this.

Occitan is one of the many languages ​​spoken in Europe that do not have the political status it deserves. It is not the only one and this fact reminds us that only from respect for minoritized cultures (which are not minorities) can we build a common European project in which we all feel part.

 

Lo temps s'es perdut

Dins los camins de l'èr
Ont, ausèl sens còs,
Una cara de dròlla
Pren sa volada.

Una perla negra dins sos uèlhs
S'escapa cap al cèl d'Icara.

Es filha del neient
Que li daissèt en eritatge
Un tròç de nuèch sens luna
Sus las labras.

Jamai tocarà tèrra
Jamai tutejarà la pèira
Nimai los arbres
E l'aiga que los enjaura.

Qu'a esposada una quimèra
Que se perdèt dins lo vent.

Time has disappeared
Into the air-tracks
Where a young girl's face,
Bird without body,
Takes flight.

From her eyes a black pearl
Escapes to Icaria sky.

She's daughter to oblivion
That bequeathed her
A morsel of moonless night,
Left on her lips.

She'll never touch earth
She'll never tease the stone
Nor the trees
Nor the waters that confound them.

She married an illusion

That vanished in the wind.

 

 More information: The Guardian 

Lo temps s'es perdut
Dins los camins de l'èr.

 

Time has disappeared
Into the air-tracks.

 

Aurélia Lassaque

MONTPELHIÈR, FROM JAUME I TO FRANCESCO PETRARCA

Joseph de De Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma are visiting Montpelhièr, the beautiful Occitan city where Jaume I was born. 

For The Grandma, visiting Montpelhièr is very special because of all the memories she has of living there while studying the Occitan poets for her Literature degree. In addition to learning Occitan, a very important language also in Catalonia where it is an official language, The Grandma shared wonderful moments with her Occitan colleagues and friends and visiting them again is always something very special and emotional.

Montpelhièr is a city in Occitània near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region, is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. Montpelhièr is the third-largest city near the Mediterranean coast, behind Marselha and Nice, and the seventh-largest city of France overall.

In the Middle Ages, Montpelhièr was an important city of the Crown of Aragon (and was the birthplace of Jaume I), and then of Mallorca, before its sale to France in 1349. Established in 1220, the University of Montpelhièr is one of the oldest universities in the world and has the oldest medical school still in operation, with notable alumni such as Francesco Petrarca, Nostradamus and François Rabelais. Above the medieval city, the ancient citadel of Montpelhièr is a stronghold built in the seventeenth century by Louis XIII.

Since the 1990s, Montpelhièr has experienced one of the strongest economic and demographic growths in the country. Its living environment, with one of Europe's largest pedestrian areas, along with its rich cultural life and Mediterranean climate, explains the enthusiasm for the city, which is nicknamed the Gifted. It is ranked as a Sufficiency city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

In the Early Middle Ages, the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone was the major settlement in the area but raids by pirates encouraged settlement a little farther inland. In 737, Charles Martel destroyed Maguelone.

Montpelhièr, first mentioned in a document of 985, was founded under a local feudal dynasty, the Guilhem, who combined two hamlets and built a castle and walls around the united settlement. The name is from medieval Latin mons pisleri, Woad Mountain referring to the woad (Latin pastellus, pestellus) used for dyeing locally. There is no real mountain in the area, with the mons referring to a pile of stones.

In 986, the Lords of Montpelhièr begin with William I of Montpelhièr. In the 10th century the town consisted of two portions, Montpelhièr and Montpelliéret.

In 1160, the law school was active.

The two surviving towers of the city walls, the Tour des Pins and the Tour de la Babotte, were built later, around the year 1200. Montpelhièr came to prominence in the 12th century -as a trading centre, with trading links across the Mediterranean world, and a rich Jewish cultural life that flourished within traditions of tolerance of Muslims, Jews and Cathars- and later of its Protestants. William VIII of Montpelhièr gave freedom for all to teach medicine in Montpelhièr in 1180. The city's faculties of law and medicine were established in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad of Urach, legate of Pope Honorius III; the medical faculty has, over the centuries, been one of the major centres for the teaching of medicine in Europe. This era marked the high point of Montpelhièr's prominence. The city became a possession of the Kings of Aragon in 1204 by the marriage of Pere II of Aragon with Marie of Montpelhièr, who was given the city and its dependencies as part of her dowry.

Montpelhièr gained a charter in 1204 when Pere and Marie confirmed the city's traditional freedoms and granted the city the right to choose twelve governing consuls annually. Under the Kings of Aragon, Montpelhièr became a very important city, a major economic centre and the primary centre for the spice trade in the Kingdom of France. It was the second or third most important city of France at that time, with some 40,000 inhabitants before the Black Death. Montpelhièr remained a possession of the crown of Aragon until it passed to James III of Mallorca, who sold the city to the French king Philip VI in 1349, to raise funds for his ongoing struggle with Pere IV of Aragon.

From the middle of the 14th century until the French Revolution (1789), Montpelhièr was part of the province of Languedoc.

In the 14th century, Pope Urban VIII gave Montpelhièr a new monastery dedicated to Saint Peter, noteworthy for the very unusual porch of its chapel, supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like towers. With its importance steadily increasing, the city finally gained a bishop, who moved from Maguelone in 1536, and the huge monastery chapel became a cathedral.

In 1432, Jacques Cœur established himself in the city and it became an important economic centre, until 1481 when Marseilles overshadowed it in this role.

At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, many of the inhabitants of Montpelhièr became Protestants (or Huguenots as they were known in France) and the city became a stronghold of Protestant resistance to the Catholic French crown. Montpelhièr was among the most important of the 66 villes de sûreté ('cities of protection' or 'protected cities') that the Edict of Nantes granted to the Huguenots. The city's political institutions and the university were all handed over to the Huguenots.

Increasing tension with Paris led to King Louis XIII besieging the city in 1622. The city surrendered after a two-month siege. Peace terms called for the dismantling of the city's fortifications and the building of the royal Citadel of Montpelhièr to secure the city for the government. The university and consulate were taken over by the Catholic party. Even before the Edict of Alès in 1629, Protestant rule was dead and the ville de sûreté was no more.

Louis XIV made Montpelhièr capital of Bas Languedoc, and the town started to embellish itself, by building the Promenade du Peyrou, the Esplanade and a large number of houses in the historic centre.

After the French Revolution, the city became the capital of the much smaller Department of Hérault.

During the 19th century the city thrived on the wine culture that it was able to produce due to the abundance of sun throughout the year. The wine consumption in France allowed Montpelhièr's citizens to become very wealthy until in the 1890s the phylloxera induced fungal disease had spread amongst the vineyards and the people were no longer able to grow the grapes needed for wine.

During the repression of January and February 1894, the police conducted raids targeting the anarchists living there, without much success.

After this the city grew because it welcomed French repatriates from Algeria and other parts of northern Africa after Algeria's independence from France. In the 21st century Montpelhièr is between France's number seventh and eighth largest city. The city had another influx in population more recently, largely due to the student population, who make up about one-fourth of Montpelhièr's population. The school of medicine kickstarted the city's thriving university culture, though many other universities have been well established there. The coastal city also benefited in the past 40 years from major construction programs such as Antigone, Port Marianne and Odysseum districts.

More information: Montpellier Tourism

A mièja-votz
cal parlar de l'amor.
A bramals de la tèrra raubada,
a ponhs sarrats amb nòstre pòple,
a dents copadas, a contra-jorn,
de la lutz que de còps endevinhi.

In a half-voice
we need to talk about love.
To cries of the robbed land,
hand in hand with our people,
to teeth cut, to counter-day,
of the light I sometimes guess.

Ives Roqueta

'SAVON DE MARSEILLE', GREAT SOAPMAKERS SINCE 1370

The sun has shone again in the sky of Marselha after a few days of torrential rain. Storm Ingrid has said goodbye to us, but storm Joseph is expected to arrive in the next few hours.

The other Joseph (de Ca'th Lon) has visited the Musée du Savon de Marseille with Claire Fontaine and The Grandma today. Marselha has many elements that make it famous and prestigious around the world and one of them is its soap, manufactured since the 14th century. After visiting the museum, they will taste a fantastic bouillabaisse, a daube, some supions and buy some oreillettes of Provence for the trip they will take this same afternoon to Montpelhièr.

They have been wonderful days in Marselha, a city that The Grandma loves very much and to which she hopes to return soon. Now, they will visit another of the cities loved by her, a city that has been beating for centuries and that keeps Occitan culture alive.

Savon de Marseille or Marseille soap is a traditional hard soap made from vegetable oils that has been produced around Marseille, Provence, for about 600 years.

The first documented soapmaker was recorded from the city in about 1370. By 1688, Louis XIV introduced regulations in the Edict of Colbert limiting the use of the name Savon de Marseille to olive oil based soaps. The law has since been amended to allow other vegetable oils to be used.

By 1913, production had reached 180,000 tons. Thus, in 1924, there were 122 soapmaking companies in the Marseille and Salon-de-Provence areas combined. However as of 2023, there were only four remaining, all part of an association called Union des Professionnels du Savon de Marseille (UPSM).

Traditionally, the soap is made by mixing sea water from the Mediterranean Sea, olive oil, and the alkaline ash from sea plants together in a large cauldron (usually making about 8 tons). This mixture is then heated for several days while being stirred continuously. The mixture is allowed to sit until ready and is then poured into a mold and allowed to set slightly. While still soft it is cut into bars, stamped, and left to completely harden. The whole process can take fourteen days to a month.

Today there are two main types of Marseille soap: the original greenish-hued variety made with olive oil, and a white one made of palm and coconut oil mixture. Originally sold only in 5 kg and 20 kg blocks, they usually come in 300 g and 600 g squares nowadays. Though smaller and larger sizes are available, from 15 g guest soap up to a 10 kg  self-slicing block.

Marseille soap is frequently used for domestic cleaning, including hand-washing of delicate garments such as those made of wool or silk. In its liquid form it is commonly sold as a hand soap. It can also be used in agriculture as a pesticide.

More information: Savonnerie Marseillaise de la Licorne

In Marseilles they make half the toilet soap 
we consume in America, but the Marseillaise 
only have a vague theoretical idea of its use, 
which they have obtained from books of travel.

Mark Twain