Our road trip to France, was semi-planned. We had an idea of certain areas we wanted to visit to see if they could be added to our list of possible places for relocation. So, as we set off for the south-eastern region, we knew we wanted to tick off Beziers, Carcassonne and Nîmes, but apart from that we were pretty easy about where we headed to and stopped off. We think this is the best way to get to know places, and we were proven right on this trip. We don’t think we’d heard of – or, at least they hadn’t really registered – Arles, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Caunes Minervois or Salon de Provence, but these places all resonated for very different reasons.

Our stop over in Salon de Provence, nearly didn’t happen. We had thought to book somewhere in Aix-en-Provence, but on googling hotels etc, Salon caught our eyes and we decided it might be worth investigating. And, we were in luck as I found a beautiful hotel – La Maison d’été – which had availability. As we were in the locality, rather than book online from the car, we decided to go in person and book in for the evening. Only on arrival, I was informed by a quite a dismissive gentleman, who I assumed to be the owner as he had the air of someone with a degree of responsibility, that even though I might have found something online, he could assure me that this hotel was fully booked. As they are most nights, he added. And no, when I asked, did he know of any other hotels in the area. And back he went, to quaffing a glass of wine with guests who were clearly checking in, leaving me feeling like a little bit of a spare part, in the beautiful entrance way.

So, in my head I stuck two fingers up at him, and returned to the car, where we did find another hotel very close by – Hotel d’Angleterre – which had excellent reviews, looked quirky and also apparently had availability. We booked the room immediately and headed to check in. A slight Fawlty Towers moment happened when we arrived at reception, as I tried to explain we had just made a booking, but the receptionist, who could speak no English, so I was reliant on my limited French, would not accept we had made a booking, as we weren’t in her system. However, she did manage to convey that we could park outside the hotel – free after 6pm until 9am, so *result* – and by the time we’d done this, we had appeared on the system, and all was OK with the world. Check in successful. I intend to do a separate blog about the hotel as I think it deserves it, so I’m skipping to what we thought about the small part of Salon de Provence that we discovered, the next morning, when it was bathed in beautiful September sunshine.

Photo credit : https://rampal-latour.fr/collections/savon-de-marseille

Not having heard of Salon de Provence before we visited, there were some things we discovered, which we found to be very interesting. Firstly, that this is town where the production of my favourite soaps – Savon de Marseille – is carried out, in the historic soap factory of Rampal Latour, soap maker since 1828 and installed in Salon since 1907. For an entry of between €3 – €5, if you are a real soap fiend, you can visit the Marseille Soap Museum, too.

If soap’s not thing, maybe predictions and prophecies are, and of so, Salon is your town. The place where Nostradamus settled in 1547 to make a family home for himself, his wife Anne and their 6 children, and where he wrote all his books and where he died twenty years later in 1566. His house is now a museum, which is open all year, Monday to Friday from 09:00 – 12:00 and 14:00 to 18:00, and at weekends from 14:00 – 18:00. Entry to the museum costs around 5 euros for adults and is free on the 1st Sunday of each month.

If soaps and prophecies don’t do it for you, maybe the fact that since 1946, Salon de Provence has been home to the École de l’Air at Salon de Provence Air Base. The quarters of the Patrouille de France have been there since 1964. It is the only flying school in France and trains 400 Air Force officers a year in military, scientific, social and intense physical training for positions “on the ground” or as crew, with some fighter pilots graduating from the school and making their name in the famous Patrouille de France. Often, you can have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Patrouille de France’s planes in the sky, training. Salon is also home to the Château de l’Empéri, the oldest fortress in Provence. Surrounded by the old houses nestled against its walls, it dominates the city, and houses the Military Museum with a collection of Napoleon’s uniforms, weapons and objects unique in the world, a pair of gloves that belonged to General Bonaparte, a cartridge box that belonged to Louis XV and the uniform of a French soldier who took part in the victory parade in Paris at the end of the Great War.

But for us, with only an hour or so before we had to hit the road again, we decided on this occasion, to soak up the morning atmosphere, as the town was just stirring. The historic centre is absolutely beautiful, and as French as French could be. If you had clipboard with a list every quintessential French cliche, you’d definitely get a full house here – wrought iron balconies, honey coloured stone buildings, pastel coloured wooden shutters, plane tree lined boulevards, independent shops and boutiques, effortlessly super stylish people, boulangeries, patisseries, street planters tumbling with flowers, no litter. And the list goes on. It is a beautiful, beautiful town and if we had already sold our house and were in a position to move there and then, I’d have spent the day house hunting. Thankfully, we weren’t in a position to buy there and then, so common sense prevailed, but, Salon de Provence is definitely a town on our radar. And, amongst other things – location, distance to other important places, amenities etc – this is why…

Visiting this area of France has certainly given us a lot to think about, as we consider where we might want to relocate to, when our renovated stone house in Istria is sold. We know that our itchy feet are leading us in the direction of Spain or France, but we still want close proximity to Italy, and the south east of France seems to give us the best location, in terms of being close to borders. But, we still need to investigate as this move has to be right – and if investigation means discovering beautiful towns like Salon de Provence, this makes us very happy in the meantime.