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The salt from Salies-de-Béarn, between legend and tradition

Salt, illustration picture | Christian Mertes / CC-BY-SA
Legend Speciality

What’s this?

This white salt comes from Salies-de-Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques): they produced it since Antiquity, with a stove and by water evaporation.

It's very rich in trace elements and gourmets love it.

This salt is used for the famous Bayonne ham salting!

The little history

A salty legend!

A medieval legend about Salies salt? Well, it says one day, a lord and his henchmen were hunting a boar in the forest, since hours and hours.

Completely panicky, the beast hid in a swamp. But one hunter shot it an arrow in the breast!

Terribly wounded, the boar died in a part of the swamp.

And when the lord found the body, it was covered with a salty crust! How did this thing happen? Then he discovered the swamp was fed by a salty stream...

The city was named Salies...

The beginning

So they started to produce salt. The tradition says people from Salies, in the beginning, didn’t know how to gather it...

Until an Italian from Rome came and created a "salt stove". With this brand new technique, the little city started to be prosperous.

And to celebrate this Italian, they named the district where the salt was produced Roumette, "little Roma"!

About the the author

Vinaigrette
I'm fond of strolls and History, with juicy and spicy details!