Scent of a Woman is not only the title of an excellent Al Pacino film, based on an Italian book Il buio e il miele (Darkness and Honey) by Giovanni Arpino. It is also the theme of another book. For those who have read the odd, but welwritten, murder mystery Das Parfum (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) from 1985 by German author Patrick Süskind, a visit to the small town of Grasse is relevant. Or visit Grasse and read the book(s) after. The perfume town is nested in the mountain region some 20 kilometres from Cannes. Easily accessible by local buses on one euro bus rides from either Nice or Cannes.The very Gothic Süskind novel tells the tale of a man who murders a woman to guard her scent. The fragrance not lasting, he has to find a way to reproduce it. Ever after having to chase the perfume in the southern part of France. Are the notes made of vanilla, or what does the scent consist of? And how do you reproduce human bodily scents? The chase goes on for some 200 pages and the detailed description of the notes of perfume, extracted oils, etc. is amazing. This book was - also - later made into a film.
In Grasse the shoe string traveller can visit perfume factories like Galimard or Fragonard for free guided tours. PN visited the oldest of the factories. Galimard was founded in 1787 and collects flowers - jasmine, rose, lavender, orange flower - or other plants and fruits and presses them to extract the essential oils to produce perfumes. It takes 500 kilos of rose petals to produce one litre of pure rose essential oil perfume. Read the book, see the film, visit Grasse!For further information, please see: