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onjour!
This month we are dedicating our newsletter to a charming town in Provence that is fragrant
with the perfume of jasmine, violet, rose and lavender. Grasse is a sunny little refuge that
hangs 1,148 feet high on the hill of Roquevillon, about 12 miles north-west of Cannes. Its
exceptionally mild climate and fertile soils yield an abundant wild and sweet-smelling
flowering. The local people transform the beautiful colored petals into subtle and delicate
perfumes, with love and passion, and make Grasse the perfume capital of eastern Provence.
But before continuing, please remember that you can access and read all the newsletters already
published at http://www.francemonthly.com/
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A Dynamic Town
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As early as the Middle-Ages, Grasse was a wealthy commercial city. It owed its prosperity to
several factors, but first and foremost was its geographic location, neither too close nor
too far from the sea. Not that it was always completely spared by the wars, but it did often
find itself sufficiently removed from the coast to escape the direct fallout of the devastating
barbarian invasions.
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Grasse - The Hill of Roquevillon
(Click photo to enlarge)
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On the other hand, it was close enough to develop very early on a thriving maritime trade,
particularly with the city of Genoa, in Italy. Its political situation also contributed greatly
to its development. Inspired by the little Italian republics, Grasse set up a consulate in the
12th century. This enabled the city to reject the feudal administrative power of the neighboring
city of Antibes and acquire some autonomy, although this was not an easy proposition due to the
interference of the lords and bishop (whose authority was often questioned). Finally, a political
and trade agreement with Genoa promoted exchanges between the two cities, and would remain in
force for the next 300 years, up until the end of the 15th century. Wheat and animal skins
arrived from Italy, while the ships returned full of wine, livestock and skins freshly dyed
in Grasse by the local experts.
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Evil-Smelling Streets
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Very quickly, the prosperity of the city came to rest for the most part on its animal skin trade.
This was, among other factors, thanks to the waters of a torrent, the Foux, which crossed the town
once it had been canalized. The tanners were therefore able to meet on its banks to scrape, wash,
and soak their leather for many months at a time. The people of Grasse were no doubt experts in
tanning. But if Grasse was famous for the quality of its leather, it was equally infamous for the
pestilential odor that stemmed from the operation. Eventually, some more innovative tanners settled
in right next to the old ones who polluted the atmosphere. First, they treated their skins with the
local olive oil which gave their leathers perfect suppleness, then they rubbed them with perfumed
fatty ointments. These new scented skins were set aside, reserved for the making of gloves for pretty
Parisian ladies. Up until then, ladies would run perfumed lace handkerchiefs under their delicate
noses to avoid breathing the nauseating smells emanating from the capital’s dirty streets. From then on,
they were able to use this new accessory instead, and it became all the rage. A new profession emerged,
that of "Perfumer Glovers". Marie de Medicis, Queen of France in the 16th century, and her court were
equally delighted with this perfume fashion, and demanded that all leather goods be treated, whether
gloves, doublets, purses or belts.
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Recipe for May 2006
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Lemon Meringue Tart
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Grasse, from Skins to Flowers
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Legend has it that Catherine de Medicis was behind this newfound enthusiasm. While staying in Grasse,
she was greatly impressed by the profusion of fragrant multicolored flora that filled this area of
Provence, around the Mediterranean sea. Bored with the exotic perfumes that she was importing from
the East at great cost, she chose Signor Tombarelli, a native of Florence who was a member of her
entourage and perfumer by trade, to create a workshop in Grasse where he could make delicate
essential oils from the local flowers.
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Rose Petals Becoming Perfume
(Click photo to enlarge)
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For the most part, essential oils and sweet-scented ointments had always come from Italy up until then.
However, relations between the two countries were often strained, and with every new armed conflict
came a shortage of these products. It was decided that it was high time to take advantage of Mother
Nature’s generous gift of such marvelous flowers to this region. Tanners had already been drawn
naturally to myrtle, a small evergreen tree with white flowers, and the mastic tree, a shrub
with shiny leaves and little blackish fruits, to dress their leather. There was an abundance
of these two wild plants whose peculiarity was the ability to give leather a very pleasant green
tint, very fashionable during the Renaissance.
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A Well-Kept Secret
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Provence’s generous floral endowment offers an incredible palette of colors and sweet smells
all year round: mimosa in February, violets in March, daffodils in April, orange blossoms
and roses in May, tuberoses from June to September, and finally, jasmine from August to October;
and let’s not forget the prized aromatic lavender all summer long.
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Fields of Centifolia Roses, Grasse
(Click photo to enlarge)
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There is a wealth of raw material there. Some flowers must be carefully picked by hand at sunrise,
when the perfume is at its peak, others are picked throughout the day until sunset. It then becomes
a delicate and tedious task to extract the precious essential oils that have made the renown of
Grasse over time. The first "digestion" techniques were very primitive, as the perfume artisans
would simply let the flowers macerate in oils and animal fat. They were then distilled with a
little retort heated over direct fire. This crude technique was later refined with the process
of "enfleurage", where the flowers were spread over sheets that had been coated with odorless
vegetal or animal fat, to which they transferred their perfume. This is a very succinct summary
of what is now a very complex and labor-intensive method of extraction, and a perfumer’s closely
guarded secret…Today, about a ton of petals are treated daily.
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A Symphony of Perfumes
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No one can remain insensitive to the delightful smells emanating from the fields and hillsides
of lovely Provence. Would we have the imagination to create, from all these pervasive and enchanting
scents, a unique perfume that would fit us like a glove?
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A Young Girl Reading, Fragonard
(Click photo to enlarge)
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Probably not! Only a magician, or perhaps a musician, could achieve such a remarkable feat.
That is just what the olfactory geniuses referred to as "Noses" can do. At once a magician
and a musician, a "Nose" is capable of distinguishing between more than 10,000 separate scents.
There are many similarities between the talents of the "perfumer nose" and the musician. They
are both artists and composers. While a musician composes a symphony from scales of notes at
his disposal, the "Nose" uses "an organ", which is a whole range of scents that he smells,
sniffs, breathes and combines, to create perfectly harmonious "bouquets". These new hybrid
scents come to life from an endless search based on meticulous proportioning and educated
guesses. Although every major perfume brand now employs the talents of these unusual musicians,
there has never been a "Nose" in the world who wasn’t either a native of Grasse or at least a
visitor to the town.
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Fragonard |
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The Fragonard clan represents more than just a family name in Grasse, it represents a dynasty.
It was Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), whose father was a glover in Grasse, who first made
this family of artists famous. His talent as a painter was already widely recognized in Paris
where he had lived since his childhood, when in 1754, he made a stop in Grasse on his way to Italy.
The Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament appealed to the young painter to help improve the interior
of its chapel. Though he was much more at ease with lighter subject matters, he accepted the job
nonetheless and created the masterpiece that is still on display behind the chapel altar,
"Le Lavement de Pied", or "The Foot Washing". After that, Countess du Barry asked him to take
over the interior decorating of her country house in Louveciennes that had been given to her by
the king. And so at her request, Jean-Honoré Fragonard began in 1771 a series of four sensual
paintings that he named "The Progress of Love in a Young Woman’s Heart". The countess turned
down these suggestive art pieces, finding them too evocative of her affair with King Louis XV.
Disappointed, the painter kept them in his studio before eventually hanging them a few years
later in one of his cousins’ living room, in Grasse. Today, one can admire excellent copies of
them in the Fragonard Museum; as for the originals, they are now on show at the Frick Collection
in New York. The famous perfumery in Grasse took the name of this great painter in 1926, as a
tribute to his talent.
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Little Streets with Italian Republic Overtones
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At a time when general insecurity reigned, all the people of Grasse, whether rich or poor, were
crammed inside the city walls. Houses were built several stories high, sometimes even connected
by archways on top of which other buildings were stacked. The resulting narrow and often dark
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The Place aux Aires in Grasse
(Click photo to enlarge)
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little streets are typical of the old town and lead to a picturesque square, the "Place aux Aires".
It is impossible not to think of the tanners who came there to clean their animal skins at a
distant time when the Foux still flowed through; or the townspeople who gathered there to
carefully spread out their grains, having to pay "la rêve" (French homonym for "dream"),
a tax collected in the Middle-Ages by the municipality. Far from making the inhabitants dream,
the purpose of this local tax was to meet the needs of the city. Meat, fish,
wine, wheat, in fact all the goods for sale at the markets in Grasse were subject to it, and very
heavy fines were handed out to those who tried to cheat. It was on this beautiful public square
that the people of Grasse came to carefully count their grains before bringing them to the mill.
Today, the Place aux Aires is the setting for outdoor tables at cafes and restaurants, as well
as the flower and regional products market, all arrayed around its magnificent three-basin stone
fountain sheltered by thick hackberries.
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An Invitation to Travel... |
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Can you guess where perfumes by Dior and Rochas, or the mythical Chanel No5 were created? In Grasse, of course.
If you find yourself on the French Riviera, you should stop there for at least a couple of hours for a perfume
initiation. You can create your own perfume with the help of a "Nose", and probably obtain your student
perfumer certificate (but please do make an appointment in writing to tourisme@molinard.com). Grasse is also a
meeting place for golf lovers, who can use a "Golf pass" to enjoy all four beautiful courses in the region.
Finally, Grasse is a very charming little town in Provence, with its cathedral, its collections of
paintings, and its dreamy museums such as the ones dedicated to perfume, or to the regional dress of
Provence.
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