Grasse

Today I had no classes once again. A bunch of us didn't so we decided to take a day trip to Grasse. We took the bus since it's only 1 euro. Grasse is located inland and north of Cannes. It took about 1.5 hours on the bus.

Grasse is know for its perfume. The first thing we did was go to the International Museum of Perfume.

It was really interesting. One of the coolest things was this room where different nature scenes were being projected on the wall with calming music. It took us awhile to figure out what was going on. The smells in the room kept changing to match the scenes being shown. It was really zen-like. Kind of like when you go to a spa. It smelled so good!

Then the museum went through the history of perfume starting from ancient Egypt to modern day. They had some strange exhibits like this mummy dog and a mummy hand and foot. Ew. I hope there was only a perfume bottle in the mummy dog and not a real dog.

They had different scents you could smell along the way.

After the museum we ate lunch and then headed over to Fragonard Perfumery.

Packaging

They offered free tours of the factory. It was interesting to see how perfume is made.

Soap room

Did you know that in order to extract the oil from flowers in the past they would lay the flowers in animal fat. Each day they would remove the flowers and place new ones on the same slab of fat by hand. It took a minimum of 2 months to get enough oil this way. I was nervous at first that they stilled used the animal fat because then I don't know if I could use perfume being a vegetarian! But it's ok. They don't anymore. They get the oil more like how you make beer, with a distiller.

The "Organ"

The people that mix the scents are called "Noses" and apparently there are only 50 of them in the whole world. You have to be able to recognize over 300 different smells but the good ones know over 3000. Most are freelancers because there are so few of them. I would get a headache everyday if I was a Nose.

I did get a headache from smelling so many perfumes today. I was sneezing all over the place. I don't think I will be able to put any perfume on for a week!

Also, I never knew there was a difference between perfume and Eau de toilette. Eau de toilette is less concentrated. It is 10% oil, 10% water, 80% alcohol. Perfume is 20% oil and 80% alcohol. Therefore, perfume is more expensive, the bottles are smaller, and you don't need to spray as much so it can last longer.  

At the end of the tour they show you some of their perfumes that they sell. They were too expensive for me.

After the tour we went up to the old town to see the view of the city. Grasse is high up in the hills so you can see the sea in the background.

So then it was time to head back home on the bus. And now it's time to rest because believe it or not, I actually have a class tomorrow!

Have a fragrant day!