La Savonnerie de Nyons – Savon Parfumé – Pivoine

“A Girl Named Peony”

If the peony (flower) is so great, how come no one is named after it? (I’m sure someone is, and no offense to them—I just have never come across anyone with that name!) A fine name for a girl, or a pet, and I think for a boy, as well, though it might be tough in our stone-age times—I guess the boy would learn to fight, like “the boy named Sue.” This is an off-white, disk-shaped soap with a lovely fragrance, and I mean lovely. I’ll go everywhere with flowers. It came in a cute, square box with a romantic micro-illustration of Saint-Tropez, rising from the beach and blue Mediterranean like the resort one could choose to die at. Upon second look, this is very strange art—in that it seems to be a largescale work that has been shrunken to 3-inch square, so it’s impossibly detailed—there are no pixels (or they’re microscopic)—how is this even achieved? Also, the soap isn’t from there, but a quite bit north, from Nyons! (70 rue Félix Maurent, ZA Les Laurons 2, 26110 NYONS.) I looked at online map, street view, and there’s a kid next to a dumpster, caught concealing something in his cargo shorts. Soap seconds, maybe? In fact, all these towns in southern France—you can spend your whole afternoon on the maps—they’re all so beautiful—what am I doing here? Well, I still have a job, and it’s another lovely, snowy day in Milwaukee, so there’s that.

Soap Review No. 237