Columbia Hillen
Autumn is the perfect time to visit Paris – as summer in the City of Lights can be as hot as Hades itself – and there’s no better occasion to experience one of its most iconic attractions perfume factory.
But instead of just enjoying one of the city’s most captivating senses, why not create your own with expert guidance?
Two perfume factories offer this golden opportunity, a niche independent perfumer, Maison des Parfums Candora, founded by passionate individuals and located in the heart of Paris, under the direction of the general manager, Emmanuel Frossard, and two perfumers, Isabelle Ferrand and Mélanie Leroux. And the other company, a famous international company run by the family, is called Fragonard.
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Maison des Parfums Candora, opened in 2017, is located a short distance from the banks of the Seine, Notre-Dame de Paris and Ile Saint-Louis. Here, in addition to creating your own perfume in special workshops with professional guidance, you will also find products as diverse as perfumes, lotions, scented candles, game books and other unexpected scents. Candora perfumes can also be ordered from its online perfume store.
Emmanuel Frossard co-founded and manages Candora. Columbia Hillen’s photo
Frossard, co-founder of Candora, proudly introduced me and my companion to his company’s new location, which can accommodate up to 50 participants in perfumery workshops. Frossard decided to start the company after starting a career with multinational companies such as L’Oreal, Moet Hennessey, Louis Vuitton and Johnson & Johnson. “I like to combine contrasts, the warmth of wood and the softness of flowers,” he says when describing his favorite scent. “I wear cedar and iris, sometimes vetiver and lavender. It is amazing to see how the two fragrances come together to form a third. I usually take pictures of colors. Blue and yellow give rise to a green hue that we perceive them as without being able to clearly identify them”.
Visitors at Candora can create their own perfumes on site in 10 to 30 minutes, or participate in two-hour intensive perfumery workshops, open to all. It’s a fascinating olfactory experience.
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Interestingly, Candora has also developed a creative project with novelist, Ingrid Astier, to take visitors on a perceptive journey through the big and small stories behind the collection’s 21 different scents The Candora set, which includes damask rose, oud, bigarade orange, and vetiver, makes up its Olfactory Library. Contents in a special 48-page hardcover book illustrated with photos by Delphine Constantini and comes with a metal case containing 21 scents in small 3ml bottles, all playfully numbered. Customers then exercise their olfactory memory, search the ‘Scent Library’ and enter answers to questions on a page on the site, before discovering their overall score.
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Fragonard, an established perfumer, is based in Grasse on the French Riviera, a charming town known for its longstanding perfume industry. With a favorable microclimate for growing flowers, the region produces more than two-thirds of France’s natural flavorings for perfumes and foods, amounting to more than 600 million euros a year. To understand more about the sweet scent segment used by thousands of people, you should visit one of its perfume factories like Fragonard.
Founded in 1926 by a notary, Eugène Fuchs, and currently run by his three eldest daughters, Anne, Agnès and Françoise Costa, Fragonard is one of the oldest perfumeries in France.
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“We wanted Fragonard to remain a small house with its strong family values,” Agnès said in an interview on the Monaco Tribune, adding that sadly globalization has standardized behaviour. consumer behavior. “Grasse is currently going through a new golden age. When I started working, New York, Geneva and Paris still shared most of the perfumery field.” Since then, LVMH, Lancôme and even Chanel have invested in Grasse, restoring it to its former glory. In 2018, Grasse’s know-how in perfumery made it to the UNESCO heritage list. She recalls.
Diane Rognoni, Fragornard. Columbia Hillen’s photo
Not only producing perfume, Fragonard also has two museums, one about perfumes, the other about costumes and jewelry.
Constantly innovating, this family has also developed the idea of inviting people to their workshop to make their own personal fragrances. My travel companion and I did just that, spending two fascinating hours in Grasse under the patient guidance of Diane Rognoni, a passionate author of art and history, pipette in hand, apron tied around We smell and mix essential oils to create eau de perfumes.
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For visitors to Paris, the good news is that Fragonard also organizes workshops in Musée du Parfum located in the Opéra Garnier district. Here it welcomes both amateur perfumers and connoisseurs on a free guided tour that uncovers the secret of perfume making and its special history from Egypt ancient to the 20th century, with artefacts such as kohlrabi vases, pomu pots, perfume bottles, perfume burners, pouring pots, travel sets, smelling salt jars, and precious flower vases.
In the ‘perfumer’s apprentice workshop’, visitors create their own Eau de Cologne. Led by a perfumer, the workshop lasts 90 minutes, after which visitors go home with their own creations presented in an elegant, personalized 100 ml bottle and bag, by your teacher’s signed graduation and your perfumer’s apprentice apron.
With fragrance synonymous with Paris, no visit to the French capital would be complete without a visit to one of these two top ‘scent hubs’.
