Béarn
The Béarn (; ; oc, Bearn or ''Biarn''; eu, Bearno or ''Biarno''; or ''Bearnia'') is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three B ...
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
saline water
Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish water ...
( Gascon ''salias'' for Standard Occitan ''salinas''). During the expanded, pre-liberation
occupation of France by Nazi Germany
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied z ...
, Salies was on the border between the occupied zone and the free zone.
Between September 1941 and the summer of 1942, Jean Anouilh wrote his famous adaptation of Sophocles' tragedy, ''Antigone'' in the comparatively idyllic setting of Salies-de-Bearn, relieved of the invader's presence, the evening curfews and the deprivations of Paris. The play premiered in Occupied Paris in February 1944.
Salies-de-Bearn served as the setting for the writer Trevanian's novel, The Summer of Katya. In the book, it was renamed Salies-les-Bains.