After 10 years our faithful washing machine has died and the washing machine expert advised us to buy a new one.

The old one will be recycled and fingers crossed, our new one is being delivered this morning.

The first house that I purchased had one of those bathrooms that you had to step out of the house to get to and it also housed the laundry which consisted of a tub and a wringer washing machine.
The wringer washing machine scared the living day lights out of me and I was always scared it would take my hand with the object I was pushing through. 

I was happy when we had enough money to knock down the old bathroom and have a bathroom and laundry inside the house.

Here in France most villages have a lavoir and this was the place where the ladies of the village carried out their washing. 
In those days they washed less frequently than we do and they laid the linen in the sun to dry, which also bleached the linen at the same time.

The one thing that we have in common with those ladies, is that we use the same product that many of these ladies used, savon de marseille.

It is natural soap made from olive oil which is still made in  Marseille today. 

First popularized by the Crusades and  it was shipped across the trading routes in the 1600's and the first law relating to its manufacture was passed under the reign of Louis XIV, in 1688. 

Soap makers began to bathe the whole of Western Europe in the scents of  Provence an...