The Perfumes of Grasse
Ever since these childhood days, I have enjoyed buying and receiving some wonderful perfumes and have cherished them all. It is impossible for me not to think of perfumes as a source of luxury, and Parisian. Yet it was only when I moved to the Cote d'Azur and Chateauneuf-de-Grasse, that I discovered that the real heartbeat of traditional French perfumes is not Paris but the small and gentile town of Grasse, perched in the hills above Cannes and Nice.
So let's journey back in time and discover how this out-of-the-way town became the perfume centre of the world for, oddly enough, it seems that it is all to do with tanning and the art of glove making.
Leather-tanning was practised all over France wherever there was an abundance of water and livestock. The expertise brought by the Moors, the advances in dyeing as a result of the Crusades, the advances in techniques for glove making with individual fingers along with the craze for gloves, both religious and secular, as a sign of power, all favoured the development of leather work and glove making.
Today modern methods of tanning have greatly improved, but nonetheless it still involves the process of converting putrescent skin into non-putrescible leather. While today the smell of leather goods can be intoxicating, prior to the 15th century, most finished leather goods smelt unpleasant.
Two main towns, Montpellier and Grasse, took centre stage for this industry but each for different reasons. Montpellier came to prominence with its very famous Montpellier Faculty of Pharmacy founded in the 12th century (though there is mention that it was founded earlier in the 8-10th centuries). Within this faculty, the first medical school in Europe, pharmacists, druggists and apothecaries concocted perfumed preparations for medicinal usage.
Grasse on the other hand had become greatly renowned throughout Europe for its excellent tanning and quality of leather. This was due in part with its well-established trade links with Genoa and Spain, from where it bought its quality pelts prior to shipping them to Marseille. They would then leave the skins to steep in bilberry and pistachio powder in their tanning pits for eighteen months, which rendered them water-proof, impossible to wear out and gave them a characteristic green tinge.
But Grasse also had something extra special that would be the ultimate prize: an exceptional micro climate.
As the Montpellier pharmacy faculty stimulated a growing demand for perfumed products, which France had to import from Italy, the town of Grasse began to develop its production of flowers, its raw materials for the perfume industry.
Already growing naturally and in abundance around Grasse were lavandula (“aspic”), roses, iris, bilberry, thyme, violets, rosemary, and trees such as pistachio, olive, and bigarade but around 1560, vast fields of fragrant jasmine were soon joined by May rose, lavender and tuberose which flourished in Grasse's pleasant climate.
Once the region of Provence joined the kingdom of France in the 16th century, the exquisite leather from Grasse won favour at court. So when Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) arrived in France to marry Henri II, Duc d'Orleans, and brought perfumed leather gloves with her (the height of fashion in Florence), everyone wanted to wear them. Indeed, when she left Italy, she brought with her not just her favourite astrologer, artists and poets but also her own perfumer, René le Florentin (born Renato Bianco). It is said that it is he who scented the gloves that poisoned Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henry IV. Legend also has it that Queen Catherine came and stayed in Grasse accompanied by le Florentin whom she instructed to create a distillery and an alchemy laboratory much along the lines of those in Florence.
In 1656, Louis XIV (1638-1715) “the Sun King”, created the Corporation of Master Glovemakers and Perfumers and granted them the monopoly of perfume distribution. This was a momentous step as sole monopoly formerly belonged to apothecaries and druggists. In March 1673, under Jean-Baptiste Colbert's economic management, the gantiers-poudriers-parfumeurs were awarded pride of place in the Six Corps: the six most powerful guilds of the day.
In 1724 the perfumed-glove manufacturers of Grasse were officially recognized as guilds and facilitated the conversion of their tanning factories into the exclusive business of perfume making.
The “master-glover perfumer” craftsmen started operating shops where they would sell their perfume creations and many opened in Paris, although one, Jean de Galimard, Lord of Seranon, decided to open one in Grasse in 1747: it was called Parfumerie Galimard. In 1768 Chiris inaugurated his perfume factory and business which proposed soaps, creams, perfumed oils, and “quintessence” or essential oils obtained through distillation.
For a while the guild flourished until the 18th century when Royal Decree dissolved the guild, and free-enterprise-style anarchy spread as regulations vanished. Worse was still to come with the French Revolution (1789-1799) causing the downfall of the flourishing leather industry, taxed nearly out of existence and to customers' growing indifference to wearing perfumed leather gloves as also perfumed waistcoats, doublets, shoes, belts and even fans. This indifference was possibly due to the fact that many did not want to be associated with the King's court: "Madame La Guillotine" was rather a persuasive lady.
Fortunately, things changed and with the growing success of perfumes in the 1850's there expanded a need for fresh plant extracts. Within a few years the surrounding countryside of Grasse became covered in perfumed plants of a universally acknowledged high standard as country-dwellers and perfume manufacturers bought immense tracks of fields in the area. From here, the perfume makers conquered foreign markets. Perfume companies installed their factories at the edge of the town in the disused convents that had been closed down during the French Revolution.
At this point Grasse moved into the industrial phase, by specialising in the raw materials of perfume and adapting the principals of the industrial revolution to suit this process. Perfume making in Grasse then underwent an important development. It expanded to new sites – in 1846 there were 46 perfume producers in Grasse and 12 in the surrounding area; by 1866, there were 65 in Grasse and 14 in the surrounding area.
Flower cultivation for perfume reached its prime at the turn of the century. Up to 2000 tons of orange blossoms, 100 tons of roses, 500 tons of jasmine and 300 tons of violets were produced, as well as a large number of tuberoses, geraniums, heliotropes, carnations and mimosa on over 4000 hectares of flower plantations in Grasse. These were divided into 5000 farm estates and while many of them were small a few had their own mobile distilleries.
The phenomena of perfume for Grasse and its surrounding area also led to an expansion of associated craft industries: glass-makers, tinsmiths, cork cutters, ironmongers, printers, haulage contractors, etc. New machinery and new techniques for extraction were invented, including notably the process of perfume extraction with volatile solvents, for which the Grasse-based manufacturer Leon Chiris acquired the first patents in 1894.
New techniques of extraction also appeared. A process called enfleurage, involving the washing of a scented pommade with alcohol, was carried out from the beginning of the 19th century. Slowly but surely the industrial revolution marked the arrival of industrial organic synthesis, which put a number of synthetic substances at the disposal of perfume makers at very reasonable prices.
Hard hit by two world wars, the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and increasing international trade, Grasse lost a fair bit of its supremacy in the 20th century. After World War II, fragrant plant cultivation nearly ceased in the Grasse region, in favour of other areas where labour and land were more competitive. However, instead of being threatened by this challenge, manufacturers had foreseen it and intensified their production of aromatic raw materials in other regions.
While most modern, mass market perfume industries are now based in Switzerland, the United States and Germany and controlling lucrative perfume, cosmetics and food-flavouring markets, Grasse has remained steadfast in its resolve to remain the centre of traditional perfumery and the home of a large number of famous “noses”, (the subject of another article) and an essential place to visit for anyone interested in the magic of the history and making of traditional perfumes.
In fact, those of you visiting the Cote d'Azur for the first time will probably notice the abundant supply of soaps, lavender, gaily coloured Provençal earthenware pots and olive oil on sale in every little corner shop or market; the perfumes of Grasse are easily missed. So it's important to know that there are three major perfumeries still in existence today in Grasse: Galimard, Fragonard and Molinard that you can visit.
Galimard - which I've already mentioned - created by Jean de Galimard some 250 years ago in 1747 has kept the same traditions of its founder and continues to produce some wonderful perfumes and soaps. The other, Fragonard, opened in 1926 and is in one of the most ancient tannery factories of the town, dating back to 1782. The factory belonged to a glove-and-perfume maker, Mr Maubert, who took the name of Parfumerie Fragonard as a tribute to the famous painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). Different laboratories, distilleries and workshops allow you to follow the stages of the creation of perfumes. Like Galimard, Fragonard also has a branch in the very pretty medieval perched village of Eze.
Lastly, Molinard, which opened in 1849 and has played a major role in building the reputation of the world’s perfume capital with its artisanal and traditional knowledge handed down throughout many generations and is, still today ,an entirely family-run business (one of the oldest in France). It has a fabulous display of antique Molinard perfume bottles (designed by famous glass-makers such as Lalique and Baccarat) as well as a unique collection of labels while the sales shop is furnished with authentic Provençal-style furniture from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
All three perfumeries offer free guided tours of their facilities thus giving visitors the chance to find out more about the various stages in perfume manufacturing. And all three also give you the opportunity to create your own perfume which you can re-order once you've run out as they keep every single recipe.
Molinard began by manufacturing Eaux de Fleurs (flower-scented waters) and Eau de Colognes and while it is somewhat of a diversion and a bit naughty of me, I can't resist sharing with you the extraordinary story of Eau de Cologne.
First of all, Cologne is the French name given to the German city, Köln, yet the origins of eau de cologne are firmly rooted in Italy. It was created by the Italian Gian Paolo Feminis, a barber from Val Vigezzo who left his native Italy to seek his fortune in Germany and decided to settle in Köln. When there, he created a perfume called “Aqua Admirabilis”. When it was released in 1709, Feminis was stunned to learn that customers had swept it off the apothecary shelves, begging for more. To help meet demand, Feminis recruited his nephew, Giovanni Marie Farina, and together they managed to satisfy their customers. In 1732 Giovanni took over the business, marketing “Aqua Admirablis” as a consumable cure-all for a variety of ailments, ranging from stomach aches to bleeding gums.
Word spread of this remarkable water (made from grape spirits, oil of neroli, bergamot, lavender and rosemary) during the Seven Years' War which the soldiers dubbed Eau de Cologne. Anyway, to cut a long story short, word of its endorsement by Napoleon (he apparently consumed entire bottles of it each day) reached Germany, prompting the Farinas to open a shop in Paris. Annoyingly, a number of copycats then popped up, both in France and in Germany, so Farina eventually sold the formula to Léonce Collas and retired to Italy. Collas inherited the same copycat problems and in turn sold the formula to Roger et Gallet who today still owns the legal rights to the Parisian Eau de Cologne.
But here's the twist! Johann Maria Farina, a German descendent of the original Farina family, sold the Aqua formula to Perfumer Wilhelm Mülhens, also living in Cologne. Mülhens opened his shop in 1792 at 4711 Glockengasse. Today, this traditional fragrance is still sold under the name 4711 and is currently the world's oldest and most continuously produced fragrance. Isn't that incredible?
As we come to the end of my article, the question must surely be: what of Grasse's perfume industry in today's world? Although perfumes and natural extracts still form the backbone of Grasses's expertise, the use of flavours and fragrances in an ever widening range of applications has transformed the market. Local companies are currently active in a host of sectors such as health and beauty, cleaning products, wash powders, candles and lots more. For example, Azur Fragrances, established in 1978 in Grasse, produces about 350 fragrances used in 450 products from perfumes to clothes softeners and air fresheners.
Changes in consumer expectation have resulted in the major industrial names calling for the development of new “olfactory notes”. New trends are constantly emerging, such as perfumes for men or oral hygiene products. The corporate vibrancy of the region is consolidated by training institutions, higher education and public R&D units. Created in 1972 by the National Association of Manufacturers of Aromatic Products (Prodarom), the ASFO-Grasse, is a professional training body specialising in fragrances, food flavours and cosmetics. Their classes are broken into 4 streams: fragrances, flavours and cosmetics; chemistry and chemical engineering; hygiene, safety, quality and environmental sciences; and information technology and management. The Grasse Institute of Perfumery, which opened its doors in 2002, trains a selection of international students to become perfume creators or “Noses”.
Grasse's fragrance and flavour industry is now well-established and consists of about 60 companies, generating direct employment for about 3,300 people and indirect employment for around 13,000. It has a worldwide dimension with operations on all five continents, generating 610M Euro in turnover representing 50% of the French market and 8% of the worldwide market. From such humble beginnings Grasse has secured an invisible platform.
For those of you thinking of coming to the French Riviera with time to see Grasse then a visit to one of the afore-mentioned perfumeries should be on your list. Also, if you intend on coming here later in the year, a visit to Grasse's International Perfume Museum is a must. It is presently closed (since September 2004) for major renovation work but is scheduled to open by the end of this year (check their website for details).
If time is of the essense (couldn't resist the pun), both Galimard and Fragonard have branches in the delightful medieval village of Eze, a much sought-after summer destination, while Fragonard has an outlet in St Paul de Vence, another top destination on the French Riviera, and of course one in Nice too. Alternatively, any stroll through a local market will indulge your senses as here you'll find a wonderful selection of locally made natural soaps made from regional ingredients. And don't forget Gourdon, a haven of scent and blessed with the most stunning views of the French Riviera from the hinterlands to the Mediterranean Sea: pure magic . . . just like perfume.
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While researching for this article I came across a couple of interesting websites which you may like to browse:
