The Ferrymen of the Rhone

Synopsis

All the ferries in the world have this in common, whether they cross a river or a stretch of sea. People don’t really like them. They are the least bad solution to get from A to B. They don’t love their ferry. They put up with it. Which is a shame. Because every ferry which has managed to survive and not end up as scrap has its own multicoloured history which you would never imagine. Take the Rhone ferry for example. A century ago the French started to get serious about personal hygiene. Less poor than their parents, they adopted the bar of soap. And the soap capital was Marseille. As the fans of the Cadum baby multiplied, Marseille grew. To make soap you need soda and for soda you need salt, which means seawater and plenty of sun. These were readily available in the Camargue, on the other side of the Rhone. An enterprising chemist bought a stretch of mosquito flats for next to nothing and founded Les Salins de Giraud…