L'Occitane

The factory visit at L'Occitane near Manosque in Provence was a triumph! The shop offers a 10% dicount, and in addition, there's a 15% tax refund upon leaving the European Union.

At L’Occitane the tour began in a small lecture room where our hostess relayed some of the company’s 30 year history. It seems the discovery of shea butter in a nut from Africa was the driving force in the development of some of the skin care products, and the rich abundance of lavander, olive oil, oranges and almonds in Provence give the L’Occitane people a fabulous palate of fine natural sources for ingredients. As we toured through the factory, the aromas varied – all very agreeable.

Quality control is applied to every aspect of the product: only the finest ingredients are used and even the packaging is subjected to multiple tests for colour, thickness and clarity.

We were allowed to sample several of the products at the end of the tour, and were each given a cake of soap stamped with a logo to mark our visit to the factory.

Driving through Nîmes, we wondered what the city was famous for. It seems that it is the home of the serge fabric used to make jeans. The fabric was developed in Nîmes by local Protestants, who, because of their religion, were denied access to any activity of the Catholic ruling classes. Instead, they turned their hand to industry, and one thing they created was a hard-wearing fabric that would make comfortable working clothes.

The resulting fabric (serge de Nîmes) was taken to America by the Jewish-Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss who found its strength and utility ideal for making jeans. The entomology of the word becomes easy to follow: I guess you could say that serge de Nîmes became known in its ‘dressed-down’ form - denim!

We left L'Occitane about midday then set out for Andorra, the plan being to get near there, then drive up the next morning.