Fragoanrd…where the perfume borns….

April 6, 2010 at 6:24 pm (France & Fragrance...)
Tags: Art, Fragoanrd, Fragrance, France, French, Grasse, History, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Musée du Parfum, nose, Organ, Perfume, Perfume Production, smell

The charm of Provence allied with extremely contemporary pure lines, that is the Fragonard spirit linking the world of perfume with that of the home…

 Or I can say, the historic perfume factory in the heart of the perfume heaven Grasse, making from perfume from 1782. Fragonard’s Musée du Parfum occupies a mansion from the era of Napoleon III.

Jean Honoré Fragonard

 In 1926 they took the name of Parfumerie Fragonard as a tribute to the famous painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Here on a daily basis they produce our perfumes, cosmetics and soaps in a setting imbued with respect for tradition.

Down a narrow old street in Grasse’s historic center, we can find the shop dedicated to the home with its product lines inspired by the collections in our Provençal costume and jewelry museum, just a few dozen yards away…

 In the heart of Grasse, on the first floor of the historic perfume factory, that perfume museum displays a fabulous private collection of perfume bottles, presentation boxes, stills, documents and apparatus that recount the history of perfume making from most Ancient times down to the present day…

 Here we can find how “the soul of the flower” is extracted…. How exiting!!

grasse historic factory, Fragonard

 One of the more intriguing exhibits is the orgue à parfum, or “perfume organ,” so called because it resembles the keyboards of a seven-manual cathedral organ with its tiered rows of ingredient bottles arranged around a balance or scale that the perfumer uses when mixing and testing fragrances. Other interesting devices include stills (for steam distillation of perfume extracts) and glass frames that were coated with fat and flowers in the traditional “cold maceration” process….

 The art of perfume making goes back over 5,000 years, as you’ll discover at the Fragonard museum. Set up over 20 years ago, the museum retraces the way fragrances and essences of all kinds have evolved over the centuries. we’ll discover an extensive range of flowery, fruity and oriental eaux de toilette and perfumes, cosmetics and essential oils and scented soaps and candles for men, women and children. The museum shop has a collection of Fragonard perfumes with evocative and romantic names such as “Juste un baiser”, “Lune de Miel” and “Ile d’Amour”.