Bombed-out Aleppo soapmaker revives age-old tradition in Paris

Franco-Syrian Samir Constantini (L), CEO of Alepia brand, and Syrian master soapmaker Hassan Harastani, who fled Syria and decided to produce Aleppo soap on French soil, pose December 22, 2016, holding bars of soap at the company's factory in Santeny, near Paris. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

SANTENY, France (Reuters) - A Syrian soapmaker who fled Aleppo after the factory he worked in was bombed has set up shop in a Paris suburb, reviving a tradition he says dates back millennia.

Hassan Harastani left Syria in 2012, first for Lebanon and then two years later moving to France at the invitation of Samir Constantini, a Franco-Syrian doctor who was already importing the distinctive Aleppo soap.