Salies de Béarn - French Thermal Spa Town
Salies de Béarn is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France and is home to wonderful thermal spas. The name of the town even comes from its naturally saline water.
Recently I met Jo de Magneval online, a lifestyle documentary photographer and fairly new permanent resident of the beautiful town of Salies de Béarn. Jo agreed to share why she loves Salies de Béarn and her experiences of relocating her family from the UK and calling the town home. It's a perfect story to share this New Years as Jo, her French husband and children up and left the UK for France on, would you believe it, New Year's Eve.
I'm sure you'll love meeting Jo and reading more about this unique town. As a special treat we're also delighted to be able to showcase Jo's own photos of the region in this post. Jo has beautifully blended the splendour of the area with her family candidly enjoying their new life in France.
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Salies de Béarn and Jo de Magneval's Story
Let me take you back to our French summer holiday, August 2016 when it was only day two of four in the small but beautiful town of Salies de Béar, South West France, yet we found ourselves visiting a house that was for sale. We are gut following, instinct driven and some might say crazy spontaneous kind of people and we just fell in love with the house, the town, the region and the French dream!
Salies de Béarn is a thermal spa town in South West France, around 40 minute drive from the ocean town of Biarritz and just over an hours drive from the Pyrenees. The town charms you with its cobbled winding streets, beautiful character buildings, historic salt story and unique independent boutiques and restaurants.
Following Our Dream
On day three we put an offer in, and on day four as we headed north towards our next destination of Lyon, we found out our offer had been accepted. I mean, seriously, who does that?!
Our plan was to move into what would become our new holiday home for one year to enable our girls, who were at the time 7 and 5, to become fully bilingual (my husband is French but the language was just not working for us in the UK). It would also allow us a gap year from our business and to enjoy discovering this gorgeous, but probably lesser known, region of France. However, another surprise was in store and we discovered I was pregnant just before completing on the house!
Everyone thought that perhaps our plans would have changed then… but no! Surely the easiest time to move is a with 4 week old baby!
Settling into Life in France
We found a school for the girls, visited our new house during school holidays and put into motion an extension on the house before the big move came in summer 2017.
We were greeted with a new lifestyle, the kind of lifestyle that many of us imagine the French life to be. The town was alive with locals and tourists alike, there were fêtes happening in what felt like every corner of this region and we knew immediately that we had made the right choice.
We basked in the simple joy of walking to our nearest boulangerie for bread in the morning, wandering the local weekly market and indulging in the local cuisine and wines.
That first gap year soon passed into two. We were settled, happy and I decided to embark upon starting my own photography business, a long held dream with a few stop-start attempts due to babies. However, we had to make the difficult decision to return back to our business in the UK.
Life During Covid
We thought it would be ok, we can come back for holidays just as we had originally planned. Then Covid hit the world. Like many people, it made us think about where we wanted to live our lives, what we wanted to do and what was important.
I continued my photography throughout the lockdowns, finding solace in creativity and documenting not only our lives but also a window portrait series of other families called ‘Stay Home Superheroes’. (https://www.jodemagneval.com/stay-home-superheroes) and a short film looking at the pandemic through the eyes of children ‘When The World Paused’ (https://www.jodemagneval.com/when-the-world-paused-film). But during this time we thought often of our lovely home in France and knew we needed to return.
Fast forward to NYE 2021 and we arrived in Bordeaux airport, ready to pick up our new camper van to drive us home. We were back and beyond excited to restart the French life we left behind.
As I write this, at the end of 2022, I cannot believe we are coming up to our one year anniversary. The year has flown by in a haze of settling in, garden renovations, kids clubs, beach days, river swims, local fêtes, mountain walking and camper van adventures.
The local landscape is just stunning. From the ever-changing Atlantic Ocean, endless sandy beaches and palm filled coastal towns, to the snow capped mountains and the humbling calm energy they offer and beautiful villages bursting with character to wander in between, there really is something for everyone here.
Salies de Béarn fête
What To Do in Salies de Béarn
Throughout the summer there is always something happening in the region. There seems to be a fête in every town, each one unique and traditional, with Salies de Béarn boasting at least five during the summer months. Everything is celebrated here from the salt that made the town historically rich, to a local pepper sauce called Piperade.
Artists come from all over to create paintings of the town during the ‘Salies a Peindre' and street theatre takes over for a weekend as well. The local people of Béarn take such pride in their history and their joy for life is intoxicating.
I’ve discovered that there is a huge sense of local community. People support and purchase from the small independent shops and boutiques in the towns and the weekly markets are always busy. There is a real sense of 'buy local' and the added joy of France is that it is very rare to see big commercial chains in the town centres.
Using Photography To Meet People
I have been documenting in photographs the life in this town since arriving and will continue to do so, connecting with local artisans and showcasing what a wonderful area this is to visit is easy because there is an abundance of content.
Like with any big move, it takes time integrate and connect but I love how photography is a genuine and authentic way to do this. My style of photography (lifestyle and documentary) means that I do not have a studio so am reliant on getting out and meeting people. Talking to others helps to spread the world that I am here and available for businesses, families and life events. Plus, it pushes me with my French language as well. I am so grateful to have already had family, branding and wedding clients.
I am very much looking forward to next year, building on these new relationships and creating more opportunities to connect and capture the community here. If you are ever looking for a new place to visit in France, I cannot recommend this area highly enough!
You'll find more on Jo and her photography at www.jodemagneval.com
The official website of Salies de Béarn - https://www.salies-de-bearn.fr/fr/
The town has so much to offer, but these are my Top Things To See and Do in Salies de Béarn.
