A search on Basenotes for fragrances with "Paris" in the title turns up 37 names. Sure, a few are Paris Hilton scents, but the rest are plays on the city itself: Yves Saint Laurent Paris, of course; but also Bourjois Evening in Paris and Springtime in Paris; Holzman & Stephanie La Parisienne, its male counterpart, Molinard Le Parisian, and the baby-faced Téo Cabanel Demoiselle de Paris; a couple of discontinued Guerlains, Paris-Gem and Chypre de Paris; the nearly forgotten, double-hitter Caron London Paris; and more.
Why is the idea of Paris so attractive to perfume companies? (Or to musicians, novelists, and filmmakers, for that matter?) Paris has more romance than, say, Sacramento, but the reality is that it's a big city with bad traffic, dirty air, poverty, racism, a high cost of living, and dog poop on the sidewalks. It's a myth that every corner café serves up homemade cassoulet and house wine from the owner's cousin's vineyard in Burgundy. You're more likely to end up with a pre-frozen pizza or an industrially fabricated croque monsieur. And not every Parisian woman is chic — or thin. I'm not saying that Paris should be a theme park with men in berets, but the amount of loud pink and green wallpaper in many a downscale Parisian hotel is alarming.
I say this, and yet I can't stay away. I think about having a salade Niçoise and a glass of Gascon white wine in summer under the chestnut trees in the Jardins du Luxembourg then reading Elle by the pond. I remember a hotel cat, Velouté, who jumped up to wrap his paws around his elderly owner's hand to take a morsel of cat food while we had bowls of milky coffee in the (loudly wallpapered) lounge. One winter day I walked for hours so absorbed in the people and buildings I passed that at last, ravenous, I went into the first bistro I found still serving lunch and had a blanquette de veau that forever changed how I saw comfort food. Another day I held up two sweaters for a saleswoman's opinion, and she said: "Cela vous va, mais ceci est plus chic" ("That one suits you, but this one is more chic") — a distinction that guides how I try to dress to this day.
These are some of the memories that I've sewn together into a fantasy of Paris that grows stronger when I'm not there, and that wears thin when I'm lucky enough to take the trip and emerge, groggy from a red-eye flight, from the metro into the noisy, exhaust-laden boulevard above. The fantasy is wildly powerful, though. Just writing about it brings an almost physical ache, and I'm already scheming how I can swap my house for a few weeks this summer for an apartment in Paris.
In some ways, perfume is like Paris. The Paris I crave doesn't fully exist, but at the same time it's very real to me. Similarly, a dab of Annick Goutal Songes is supposed to transport me to an evening on a Caribbean island, a few drops of Comme des Garçons Stephen Jones will make me chic, and a spritz of Chanel 31 rue Cambon (another Paris reference!) and I'll be able to twist my hair into the ideal chignon. None of these fragrances has fulfilled its promise, but each of them smells good. Maybe more importantly, each of them fills the need for something to dream about.
Note: image is Jardins du Luxembourg by darek rusin at flickr; some rights reserved.
I feel exactly the same way, for the city, its history…and its perfumes.
So many novels, memoires, movies, recueils de lettres, opera pieces have built up a place that is 100% real in my mind, but that is placed nowhere in a map.
I get disappointed and charmed at every trip, and fantasy keeps spinning.
This is very Proustian, in a way…a kinf of Albertine-like love affair…
And what is more Proustian than time short circuits perfumes can trigger?
Maybe that is why I love perfume so much 😉 !
kind, not kinf…of course…
excuse me 🙂
You've described exactly how I feel when you say “disappointed and charmed” at every trip. It's so true! So much of Paris is a complete mental construct for me, but at the same time I go back as often as I can afford it–way too long ago at this point, but I'm hoping to remedy that. And I agree, too, some of the same feeling applies to perfume!
No excuse needed! I can't count the number of typos or stupid grammatical errors I make–I finally stopped trying to correct them in another comment unless they're really horrible.
I've never been much of a Francophile — I studied German in school (and loved it) and was more likely as a teen to daydream about Berlin, Amsterdam, and Stockholm than their Gallic counterpart. I'm a weird one.
I definitely enjoyed my sole visit to Paris, and even had as a guide a friend who was living there with her [former] French husband. However, at this point, I'd sooner book a trip to Grasse, Aix, Nice, or Biarritz. I would never turn down a trip to Paris, but the city I pine for — daily — is BARCELONA. Makes me swoon.
All that being said, I love French films. I hope you've seen the recent “Paris, Je T'Aime” and “Avenue Montaigne.” Both were wonderful, as is your homage to the city!
I'd never turn down a trip to Barcelona! I've been cooking from the Casa Moro cookbook lately, and Spain–especially coastal Spain and Moorish Spain–sounds so good.
Yep, I've seen them both! Parker Posey was recently in a movie that takes place partly in Paris, too, that was good. I can't remember the name of it, though.
Oh Paris! How I miss going there…. The aura of the city, the great cultural centers – museum, theatres (performances at the Chatelet, Champs Elysees, and Palais Garnier), the food, and the glorious parks….
Not wanting to sound dumb, I can't say why Paris should be so synonymous with perfume. I'll leave it to the more historically knowledgeable. I made 3 trips to Paris in 2001, 02, & 03, and each time came home with acquisitions: Eau du Soire, Eau du Fier, Rose Absolute, Gardinia Passion, Ce Soir Ou Jamais, Eau du Campagne, and discovered Decleor's Aromantic…. surprisingly no Guerlain – I was more into skincare than fragrances in those days.
That said, on my first trip, I did make the pilgramage to the Champs Elysees flagship store where they were promoting Mahora and the whole place smelled like the perfume, gorgeous! The SA gave me a packet of scented bath salts that I use as a drawer sachet, along with some nice carded samples. As unlikely as it may be, my memories of Paris will always include the scent of Mahora.
On a subsequent trip, a visit to Annick Goutal gave me the “French Perfume Experience” where the SA “perfumed” me with Rose Absolute prior to my departure with a bag of goodies so that I floated my way through the rest of the day.
Thanks Angela for giving me the excuse to daydream about Paris!
What marvelous memories!
The last time I went to Paris I decided to buy a bottle of perfume the very first day and then use it during my stay so that I'd always associate it with the trip. I think it's a great plan, and it sounds like something you did instinctively!
I would like to go to Paris, I guess. But there are lots of other cities I'd rather go to.
I have a romanticized image of Berlin. But I'm aware of its unemployment rate and dog poop on the sidewalks so I don't think its really idealistic.
I think of perfume kind of like clothing, so I just wear something that fits my mood. and I usually feel ~*~*fierce*~*~*~
I think any city's like that really. I mean, New York is fairly gritty if you've grown up on Woody Allen movies and LA isn't the sun-drenched perfection that some movies would have you believe. But even knowing about the dog poop and the frozen pizza, I still want to go. Badly.
Wonderful post … Paris seems like the best and worst of the cities. I love how old it is (how old all of Europe is compared to the US). Each time I go there's always something wonderful and something terrible (the strikes, the psycho van drivers), and I still want to go back. I am happy to have a perfume (Mandragore) I associate with Paris because I bought and wore it there one miserable cold, glorious February. So Mandragore is “Paris” for me!
I think I love stories so much that reality doesn't always play the top role in my decision to go somewhere (or wear a certain perfume). If I'm channeling Rita Hayworth, say, and I associate Shalimar with her, that's what I'll wear whether or not I would have chosen it without the story. I guess I'm an advertiser's dream that way.
Let's book two tickets, then, ASAP. My passport is up to date, and I'm ready to go…
I think buying a perfume on vacation and then wearing it there so you associate it with that time is genius! “Miserable, cold, glorious” so well describes Paris in February, too.
A French cat named Veloute??!! Purrrfect. . .
Love the idea of buying a fragrance straight away and storing up happy holiday memories that will come rushing back with a spritz of that scent! Smart cookie, there, Angela!
Thank you for reminding me of why I read this blog…!
Yes – I was on limited time on the first trip so could only make it to Guerlain – but it was an homage I HAD to make since it was the first house I began exploring in earnest. AG was the second, so it was only fitting that I went there on my second trip.
If I were to return to Paris now, I wouldn't know where to start!
Paris…..
The place to dream.
2 years ago I treated myself to a 4-day-weekend in Paris–for my birthday. The best visit ever.(Well I did that 4 yrs ago too)
Paris is probably the best illusion ever. The city with a PR firm that has been working for the past 1000 years.
Paris is walking around in your best shoes on cobbled streets, even if they are killing you. It's sipping a glass of real champagne with lunch… just because! It's a decadent pastry made with real butter and cream–no low cal stuff. It's walking into a chic boutique with your best posture and a slight sneer on your face as if you could affort anything you wanted. It's buying pralines from a street vendor and walking around with that pretty pink striped bag. It's being on the real-life set of your favorite film.
Paris is a dream away from reality…. for everyone but the parisiens. Ah…..
I just saw that Parker Posey movie … I believe it was called “Broken English”? I liked it, and her in it, and Paris.
I'm with you on Nice and Barcelona!
… and for me Nice is Lolita Lempicka au masculin. Sipping Pastis while watching the sun over la Méditerranée
Really beautiful article! I have never been to Paris, although I'm always planning to, but I've seen so many French movies I have created a very specific idea of it. I have similar “mental constructs” about New York City, though, and have romanticized it all out of proportion. It's funny how our inner selves mingle with the outer world in a certain place and we lend ourselves to the character of the place and create something very specific about it that means something to us. And then we want to relive that particular thing again and again. Anyway, great writing. I love the detail about the cat, by the way!
Funny, you mention New York as being gritty…
Sure, if you live there, or if your image of New York comes from Woody Allen, but if your main image of New York comes from something lighter, like Sex in the City: Chic women dressed in designers outfits, with no money issues, living in elegants appartments, eating out…, then New York begings to look more like Paris.
Yes! That's the one. I need to rent it again.
I wouldn't turn down a trip to Nice, either. It's been years since I've been there.
Oh, I know just what you mean! I could fill a couple of weeks just with perfume stops.
You're welcome!
And the macaroons, crepes, cheese, Malliol sculpture in the Tuileries…the list goes on and on.
Gosh, your comment is like a poem! Now I want to visit Corsica, too.
You're right, I guess we do project a lot of ourselves and our desires on the places we visit. As for the cat, I love animals (and have a big, black and white cat in my lap right now).
Yes, the perfume shopping! Big cities can be intimidating, but Paris feels smaller than, say, New York or London to me.
lol….I believe it krok!! wasn't it just yesterday you said you were looking for something with a strong pepper note? It could be a mathematical equation:
Pepper + fierce = Krok
Have you tried anything from CdG Red series? the Harissa, Palisander and Carnation all have a peppery note (I have the carnation and while it's a lot of carnation-yum- it's pretty 'hot' and spicy too) . Another way to search would be to visit the Perfumed Court and 'search by note' then select 'spice note' and then 'pepper' and a WHOLE BUNCHA STUFF will show up…..at least you can read about them and make a list of top picks to try—there's a lot to choose from. Might be a good starting point.
I think Tom meant that Woody Allen's New York is almost like SATC — huge flats, people with no money issues. I like that version of New York, too, don't get me wrong … it's just so sad when you run smack into reality. What??! You mean the average thirty-five year old woman doesn't own 100 pair of $400 shoes?
But then again, that's not what movies and television are for. I'll have a trust fund in my next life. It will make whatever city I live in much more glamorous.
Haunani,
Yes Corsica is a dream, it grows on you so strongly.
A pure beauty. You need to go there , it is a real paradise, unique in this world.
Phemia
Thank you! Your description of Corsica is absolutely captivating. The trick for me would be to find someplace reasonable to stay. I'll do some research and see what I come up with.
I've always wanted to live in New York, and I used to think that I'd be hanging out with Andy Warhol and Lou Reed or something
If ever you want to stay in the center of the island there is a marvellous place called Hotel Dominique Colonna in the Restonica valley, near Corte
It is like in a dream, your window has a balcony over the Restonica Torrent, that is just what you see and hear.
At night you shall have the Corsican cows hanging around free, they are always free.
Cat in the lap sounds familiar … I'm a cat person too, and I always notice cats wherever I travel. 😉
I think of oud as fierce, too, and sometimes geranium and birch tar.
You and me both, babe. The things I could do with a trust fund.
I just looked at the hotel's website, and it looks wonderful. And pretty reasonable, too!
Today, as luck would have it, a pipe in the kitchen sprung a leak, and I'm expecting a plumber tomorrow. Plumbers deserve every dollar they earn but I'm crossing my fingers that it won't cancel out a vacation! In the meantime I'll dream of Paris–and Corsica.
They are wonderful. I have a dog, too, and I adore him, but a cat really makes a house a home for me.
Agreed. Cat is synonymous with home for me too.
Hello, Angela. Thanks for a lovely post, that speaks very much to where my heart is right now. I just got back from my first trip to Paris a month ago (I can't believe it took me so long to get around to visiting), and while I hear and understand the points raised in your post and in the comments (that the reality of Paris can be substantially different from our romanticized images of it), I still find myself longing to be back in that city.
I've had an unusually busy 6 months of traveling, and have been in Barcelona, Toulouse, London, Mumbai, and Paris (as well as Boston, New York, and Washington D.C.), but Barcelona and Paris are the two cities that have really captured my heart.
What I wouldn't give right now for a macaron from Ladurée or Pierre Hermé, or a pastry or some chocolates from Sadaharu Aoki.
I love this article! So vivid …
For me, it is not Paris, but rather St. Petersburg to which my heart and soul belong. We go whenever we can, and it has been too long, I feel. I swear that whenever I dream, I always dream of Russia.
I highly recommend a visit, if ever you are able. Spring is unforgettable in St. Petersburg.
Russian perfumes are exquisite, as well – before the Revolution, perfumery was a flourishing industy in Russia, and their offerings were as highly regarded as the fine French houses.
What a whirlwind of travel! It sounds exciting. Maybe someday we can meet at Laduree for a coffee and macaroon.
I've never been to Russia, but I studied Russian in college and have always wanted to go. You make it sound very tempting.
PIERRE HERME is probably the best there is , his shop rue de Vaugirard is a pure delight.
Now Laduree is wonderful, I used to go there when I was a child, but it has changed and not for the better.
I prefered La Marquise de sevigne Place de la Muette.It was so magical.
Also have anyone been to Wittamer in Brussels, this is succulent as well.
There was a place in Anwertpen that used to make some rare perfumes, it was a small Hotel so luxurious and it had its own line of scents and candles.
Angela – I'll buy your ticket if you'll buy mine! 🙂
Phemia, all these connections! Kaua'i is my own personal paradise, so if your husband prefers Corsica, I MUST go there! I'm going to save your hotel recommendation and talk my husband into visiting your island.
Ah, islands. I love them!
Ourzazate makes me feel like it is summer time and it's warm and I don't have to go to school.
It doesn't make me feel like I'm in Morocco though.
Yesterday I wore CdG original edp and listened to the playlist I listened to nonstop during the summer and I almost forgot to do my homework/study for my biology test because I actually thought it was summer.
I have been once in Paris… Three days in a dream.
It was a small budget vacation with students, the sprinkler in the hostel went on during the night and it rained on my bed.
In the shopping mall of the Louvre there is a L'Artisan Parfumeur Boutique; during our breaks I spent my time sniffing for a memory to take home.
I bought Chasse aux Papillons; later that day I went out of the metro and stood under a linden tree. It was at the Tuileries…
I will never forget that smell, the view as I turned around and saw the “Jardins” something I knew from my books since I was a child. I loved Dumas and still love french literature…
Yes, Paris is expensive and dirty. But I have never seen such a bunch of handsome well dressed young men, so much history and art at one place, and the savoir-vivre paired with this strange air cities of that size have.
I have the receipt of the perfume always in my vallet, somtimes it falls out and I close my eyes just for seconds, for this memory of the smell of linden trees…
I guess I should never go back, for the sake of keeping this mmemory alive.
Definitely go some day. You'll never regret it!
um, can I stow away in someone's luggage? Now I'm dying to go to Corsica.
my black and white cat (Trixie) is my computer companion as well. Sorry, to be uninformed—took several years of french in school–but what does 'veloute' mean? anyone translate for me?
I would love to go to France, but have no desire to visit Paris…not a city girl at all…I agree; too much noise, don't like crowds, hate traffic….very sensitive nose and city smells often leave me with a headache and nauseous. Corsica sounds WONDERFUL to me. That and the Italian countryside….heavy sigh
That sounds like a great delusion right about now. Yesterday, here, it hailed and snowed off and on all day.
It's a deal!
Sure, if you can meet the 55-lb weight limit!
It means “velvety”. Isn't that nice?
My cat likes to be a “personal assistant”, too, when I least need the help. Sometimes when she sits in my lap she chews off my buttons. But she's so darned cute.
Really, though, even a day in Paris is better than nothing! And it will make the Corsican countryside that much more alluring.
Well then, Pierre Herme it is! My mouth is already watering in anticipation.
I know exactly how you feel! It sounds like you've found a way to make part of what you remember from Paris a part of your life, too. Now you'll have to plant a linden tree close to home.
aw, that is perfect for a soft black cat!!!
(Thanks for the translation)
welllllll….maybe over some…..a bit….okay, quite a bit…..okay, A LOT ! seemed like a good idea at the time.
I love Paris, warts and all. I have been there many times, too many to count, and one day I will live there. As Hemingway said, “Paris is a moveable feast.”
So true–perfume, fragrance is the stuff that recaptures the novelty of dreams. It's no wonder people of ancient cultures could walk into a temple and be transported to a place of intense spirituality and pagan rituals would be seared into the collective memory of a people, as essences and oils mixed with the scents of place and season. Fragrance is magical, it shifts time as our minds know it and conjures up emotion and memory, even reshaping memories based on the impression of a fragrance against the experience. Just like some people obsess over photographic documentaton of special moments, so do fragrance lovers connect scent with place and time and utilize these prompts in a sort of olfactory filing system—a way to pull up a memory in record time and reevaluate how you felt at that captured moment. It's another way to measure the moments of life.
We can project and paint upon such moments with the impressions fragrance leaves upon us. There are things that often seem lost in adult lexicon—dreaming, childlike exhuberance and complete trust in the endless possiblities of the future. Fragrance helps us to, at least, recapture the excitement of dreaming and appreciation the transient nature of life. The way Paris looked, smelled and felt during your trip will never be entirely reproduced again. Neither will you, from that moment in time.
Hurray! I hope you're able to make the move soon.
Well said!
Angela, I feel like what you have written extends far beyond Paris or perfume. Probably because it was so well written and asks a fairly deep question really, does anything we crave really exist, or maybe we have it already?
Thank you!
Such a good point! A lot of what we enjoy, maybe, is in how we see and value things–and somewhat less in what those things really are.
Indeed! Well put. (But I'd still love to go to Paris for the weekend, LOL!)
A wonderful post and comments. It’s quite marvellous to take a trip just by smelling a fragrance one associates with a specific place and time. I have a scent for every summer of my adolescence (some of them are NOT romantic at all… Adidas, humhum).
I enjoyed reading all these different impressions and experiences of Paris.
Ultimately, a city is always a site for the narrative one projects on to it, but places also exude their own vibe, which will taint the impressions we have of them, no?
And similarly, our visual repertoire will shape our perception of a city, even before we get there. How wicked! Start travelling without moving! That’s why I always write a travelogue *before* embarking on a voyage, that way at least I’ll have something to quote from while I’m on the road.
Paris is a big old, slightly stifled and pompous museum of the 19th century, the Hausmannian dogma has made some parts of it very monolithic, it’s rather stuck in the Academie francaise and classical vein (not all that interesting for contemporary cultural activities, imo) and the ‘niveau de vie’ isn’t great if you’re on a student income (mainly because rents are high, everything else is do-able) BUT everything else is true too! Many women are chic and elegant in a seemingly effortless manner; people have a certain savoir vivre which isn’t linked to class, age, political affiliation, etc.; the city is rather beautiful and, because of its size, has a lot to offer…
As for Corsica: I would advise anyone to go there! This is an island that truely moved me. Very different from the mainland (Corsicans are v. proud of their heritage and don’t feel as though they are part of France), Corsica is a magnificent and multi-faceted island. Poliphonic singing, mountains, wondrous food and wine, sea, sex & sun, the local dictator (Napolean was born in Ajaccio), folklore which is very much alive in the present generation (even very young Corsicans can speak Corse and sing the traditional songs)…
My favourite time to travel there is in very late summer / early fall, because that’s when the dates and figues are ripe and peak season is over (less tourists, lower prices). And if ever anyone is in to a very humble, student-style way of travelling, I can highly recommend camping and staying in monasteries — you will never find a hotel as beatifully situated as when you’re camping by a mountain lake covered by water lilies, or living with 8 tiny old monks who serve you honey and pear liqueur for breakfast…
Bon voyage to anyone heading to Paris or Corse!
What a fabulous comment! So true and so thought provoking. And so travel lust provoking. I love love love your idea of staying in monasteries, and I’ll have to look into it.
I’m dreaming of going there just thinking about it!
You’ll enjoy your trip regardless of where you stay (just avoid the Southern tip if you go in peak season as it’ll be packed).
ENJOY!
I’ve been doing a lot of digging around online about Corsica, and if I don’t go this year, I’m definitely planning on going sooner or later.
Hello Enidan,
Well, I just cannot accept the word Dictator in front of Napoleon. It is not appropriate when one knows his entire history. One can just say that “Napoleon loved France outside its borders! “…
However I can see that you like Corsica. Except July and August ( too many tourists) Corsica is wonderful all year long.
. The people are so hospitable and very different from the French of the continent, the Corsicans call the French ” les POINTUS!”.
Pace e salute
Hello Phemia, I am butting in to let you know that we do not allow any sort of political argument here….you are welcome to comment on perfume, but not to argue w/ other readers. If Enidan wishes to put the word Dictator in front of Napoleon, you will have to accept it or choose not to read it. 🙂
Hello Robin,
I did not know and I do apologize.. I am just confused there. I thought calling someone a dictator was already very political, that is why.
Hi Phemia,
Actually, I was quoting something a nice man in the post office in Corse said to me “Napo – notre petit dictateur local”; I’m French and really quite interested in the French Revolution… I didn’t want to offend anyone 🙂
Robin is right: perfume or bust! Didn’t Josephine love violets above all else? Her grave was covered in the flowers and NB supposedly wore some of these violets in a locket around his neck… Grand Amour? Obsession? Ha, aren’t those perfumes, too?
Bonjour Enidan,
Indeed not offended.
Robin is right all about perfume.
.
Josephine loved them. Grand Amour , mais quelle tristesse pour cette pauvre Josephine!
The perfumes of Corsica, when you walk all over the island, the smells are extroardinaires!
I miss this island.
Comment se porte la douce France?
I wish someone could invent a central heating that diffuse a smell of your choice, that is a dream? or not? Any news about this?
I am going to use the paint with smell. I mean I shall try a sample first.
The French Revolution is one of my great interest too.
I have a book from the XVIII century talking about and how to make perfumes, with herbs and other things.. very rare.
Sans rancune Enidan.
A bientot.
Phemia
What is the title of the book you speak of? It sounds marvellous!
I agree that someone should get cracking on the fragrance diffuser, it would make things a lot easier, but would we miss the combo of scent on skin? There’s another problem to tackle.
At the moment I’m not living in France, vous non plus me semble-t-il… But I am hoping to go home for a few days next weekend. I am told that spring has arrived in region parisienne, quel bonheur, vivement le printemps.
Une belle journee a tous,
Nadine / Enidan
Hello Nadine,
The book is called: “Les odeurs secretes des plantes, des herbes et des animeaux.”
There is also a book from S. Foinard about : “Les merveilleuses vertues des plantes, secrets antiques.” where she talks about plants and herbs and so much more… printed in 1958. The lady in question was really fascinating. She knew everything about plants and what we could do with it, potions, perfumes and magic etc…
Non, je n’habite pas France, je suis aux USA .
I only miss Paris ( where I lived for several years) for Pierre Herme, Dalloyeau, Debauve et Gallais , and for the Galeries Lafayette Gourmet shop, for the rest it is too crowded.
I also miss the vieilles pierres and the little old villages.
Ah! the old world .. I would rather live in Devon! than where I am, Burgh island , a dream!
Bonne soiree a vous.
Euphemia/ Phemia