Stain Remover Soap Madame Blancheville - Savonnerie des Diligences

Solange Malo managed the laundry in Eastman over a century ago. She had built her reputation slowly and carefully over the years. One customer at a time, she always said. Every piece of clothing was laundered, bleached and pressed with care. 

During the long winter months, customers tended to stay home. Solange filled her time offering free cleaning to her less well-off customers and organizing teams to collect garbage along the sides of the main roads. She made it her mission to ensure her village was clean. So delightful were the smells coming from her laundry that some customers borrowed her hangers for their own clothing so that it would be permeated with Solange’s essential oils.

On November 1st, 1907, as Solange was getting ready for a busy Christmas season of cleaning her customer’s best outfits, there was a horrible accident in the village. The newly-constructed Eastman rail bridge collapsed, killing two drivers and two engineers. Aboard the train was a cargo of grapes, and within minutes the entire village gathered to collect them to stock up for winter. Naturally, Solange was among them and was the first to spot a young man trying desperately to extract himself from the debris. With the help of several volunteers, she managed to free him. He was in a bad way, so with her usual generosity, she accompanied him to the hospital.

Multiple injuries kept him laid up there for a time, but Solange visited him daily. As it often does, nature took its course. She started calling him by his nickname, Gaston, and he yielded to the charm of this kind and considerate woman whose scent was as alluring as that of her namesake flower.  The day Gaston was released from hospital, she learned his family name:  Blancheville! That left no doubt – it was destined to be!

Mr. and Mrs. Blancheville had nine children and the smell of their happiness filled the entire village of Eastman.