Find Perfumes and Colognes: Grasse, France


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GRASSE, France. Perfume Capital. - by T.C.

Grasse is scent-sation

Bump into the French Riviera at Cannes or Nice, then climb back into the sunny hills about 30 miles from the coast and you'll reach a medieval hamlet that survives by sense of smell. You've found Grasse, world capital of perfume .

Fragrance industry in Grasse dates from at least the early Renaissance. In the 16th century Catherine of Medici established a fashion of perfumed gloves, and Grasse merchants cultivated the aromatic plants tanners needed to supply perfumed leather to aristocracy.

In the 19th century new scents were created because of advances in organic chemistry knowledge and synthetic perfume products were used in place of certain hard to find or expensive ingredients.

Grasse in Provence, France became a centre for flower and herb growing for the perfume industry. Aromatic essence is usually extracted by steeping the raw material in a volatile solvent, or through "fractional distillation" allowing producers to actually isolate the chemical constituents of essential oils.

Visit the marvelous "Musée International de la Parfumerie" in Grasse, France.