4-Day Weekend Travel Guide to Marseille, France. Marseille is grounded and world-class, ... There’s the smell of lavender, outdone only by the savonneries—the famed soap makers.

MARSEILLE, France — Over the years, the southern French city of Marseille has seen countless soap opera fans rushing to its TV studios, armed with cameras and publicity photos to be autographed.

A move to protect the traditional 17th-century soap from cheap foreign immitations sparks a firece dispute among its different makers over its true contents.