Don't go to Paris, the best perfume is here!（2）

If you like lively, there are colorful cultural activities in Grasse almost throughout the year, from the Perfume Day at the beginning of the year, to the National Music Festival in the summer, the Côte d’Azur Garden Festival, to the gourmet Christmas at the end of the year, etc. No matter what season you come here, you can smell the refreshing fragrance of flowers and feel the enthusiasm of the town residents for life.

In the Yar Square in the Old Town of Grasse, the flower-shaped fountain named "Flower of Grasse" is regarded as a symbol of the town. It stretches gracefully, and water jets continuously spray out from the middle of the petals, as if to bring the fragrance to the world together. If you want to know more about the relationship between Grasse and perfume, you can go to the International Perfume Museum (Musée international de la Parfumerie, MIP).

The International Perfume Museum is the most prestigious museum in Grasse. It not only opens a window for people to understand history, but also realizes the preservation and inheritance of perfume culture. It was rebuilt by the famous architect Frederick Jung on the basis of the 14th century castle walls and monastery ruins, but as a museum, its history can be traced back to 1918. At that time, François Cano founded the first private museum in Grasse. With the support of donors, the participation of many famous perfumers, and the generous donations of collectors, the scale of the museum has continued to expand, and it opened to the society in the name of the International Perfume Museum in 1989. After Grass's perfume manufacturing technology was listed as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2018, Grasse undertook a complete renovation of the museum.

Today’s International Perfume Museum is a yellow-looking house covering an area of 3,500 square meters. More than 2,500 exhibits are divided into 5 parts according to the chronological order from ancient times to the present. Each part has a specific theme, ranging from raw materials, manufacturing processes, and industrial development. , Innovative technology, and tell the story of perfume from multiple perspectives such as perfume trade, design, marketing and use.

The huge picture on the wall truly reproduces the perfume industry in Grasse in the 19th century: women dressed in traditional costumes are picking flowers in a large flower field in the faint morning light; workers use all kinds of large and small flowers in the roar of machines. The flowers are squeezed and refined with the containers and tools to extract the most essential scented oil; in the simple laboratory, the perfumer dangles bottles of various shapes in his hands and meticulously modifies perfume...

The exhibition area not only displays perfume-related production equipment, perfume utensils of different shapes and materials, etc., but also displays famous perfumes that have been representative since the large-scale commercialization of perfumes in the early 20th century, including Chanel, Dior, Calvin Klein and other well-known brands. Among all the exhibits, the dressing box of Marie Antoinette is even more ingenious. The museum also has an exclusive garden where Grasse's most representative jasmine, rose, tuberose, lavender, geranium, etc. are blooming.

For most tourists, they come to Grasse not only to have a look at the scenery and to understand the history and culture here, but more people put the purchase of perfumes at the top of the task list. If you can make a unique and personal perfume on the spot, it will be even more icing on the cake.

At present, Grasse has many perfume factories and perfume shops. The oldest and most famous ones are Fragonard, Galima and Molinard. Among them, Fragonard is the largest. Hua Gongna was founded in 1926 and is one of Grasse’s oldest perfume brands. Its name comes from Jean-Honoré Fragonard, an important representative painter of the French Rococo period. Fragonard's works are gorgeous in color and brisk strokes. The most well-known work is "The Girl and the Dog" created in 1777. During the golden age of his creation, he was mainly employed by King Louis XV. In order to cater to Louis XV's pursuit of pleasure, his paintings basically take luxury, pleasure, and lust as the themes. In the Flora Palace Museum, there are still 4 copies of "The Process of Love" painted by him for Louis XV's mistress, the Countess Barry.

The Huagongna Perfume Factory is at the entrance of the Old City of Grasse. It records the history of the development and evolution of perfumes and essential oils. There is also a mini perfume processing plant that uses a 19th century copper distillation filter device to demonstrate from the original materials The process of extracting flavors. The perfume bottle exhibition area displays perfume bottles from the 17th to 20th centuries, with various styles and beautiful shapes. Visitors can also experience a unique "scent therapy", as well as a 90-minute perfume making workshop (reservation required in advance), under the guidance of a perfumer, to make their own perfume. Of course, you can also skip this step and go directly to the factory store to shop for cheap perfumes and other souvenirs.

Just as the owner of the Paris perfume shop in the movie "Perfume" said: "People who have not experienced in Grasse do not deserve to call themselves perfumers." Grasse brings together famous perfumes from all over the world, as well as the famous "nose." Most of the more than 100 famous perfumers in Paris and the world were born here.

Today, with the development of the industry, the local flowers in Grasse have long been unable to meet the needs of the perfume industry, and imported flowers have become an important source of perfume raw materials. Roses from Bulgaria, Turkey, and Morocco, jasmine from Egypt and Italy, sandalwood from India, etc., are continuously transported here, and through a series of processes, they are made into perfumes. Many perfume factories in Grasse no longer directly make perfumes, but supply the perfumes they produce to perfumers in Paris, who then process them into different brands according to their own recipes.

But there are also some perfume brands that always insist on drawing materials from Grasse, and Dior is one of them. Christian Dior, the founder of the Dior brand, regarded Grasse as his place of inspiration, and in 1951 purchased Château de La Colle Noire (Château de La Colle Noire) near Grasse. He said that only here can he really feel that he is "both a fashion designer and a perfumer." Today, more than 60 years after Christine's death, Dior still retains the tradition he left behind, insisting on carefully planting roses and jasmine on this piece of land surrounded by the sea and mountains. Dior has established a close and exclusive partnership with a number of flower growers in Grasse, cultivating excellent varieties of roses and jasmine in the two large flower fields of Domaine de Manon and Clos de Callian, and all of them are used to modulate the Dior fragrance.

Chanel No. 5 perfume was also born in Grasse. It is said that in the early 1920s, Ms. Coco Chanel set her sights on the perfume market. Her friend and perfumer Ernest Bo set up a laboratory in Grasse. Chanel asked him to help make a special perfume. Bo has developed a number of perfume samples and numbered them from 1 to 5 and from 20 to 24. Chanel finally selected No. 5. "This is what I want." She said, "A perfume that is completely different from the past. A perfume for women!" The world-famous Chanel No. 5 was thus born.

It is these popular perfume brands that bring fragrance and beauty to the world, as well as the blessings from Grasse. In order to continue to inherit and carry forward the perfume craftsmanship, Grasse has established a number of perfume schools, the most famous of which is the Grasse Institute of Perfumery (Grasse Institute of Perfumery). This technical school was founded in 2002. It has set up training programs of different academic systems, different stages and contents for different levels of scholars, ranging from a few months to more than one year. It adopts the method of small class teaching. It has been more than ten years. Trained more than 1,000 perfumers from more than 70 countries around the world. In order to better spread perfume culture, the school also offers online courses for beginners and private courses for scholars from other countries and regions.

When each perfumer went out from Grasse and made all kinds of perfumes for people, the small town of Grasse dedicated all of its best to the world. People who indulge in the wonderful olfactory experience brought by perfume seem to have personally gone to the sea of Grasse flowers by the sea.