Perfume and Pink Umbrellas in Grasse France

in Worldmappin2 years ago

And now we come to the last stop on our trip to the Provence region, the unofficial world capital of perfume, the city of Grasse.

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Grasse is located in the Southeastern part of France close to the strip of Mediterranean waterfront cities of the French Riviera. Its not along the coast itself but more inland in the hilly mountainous interior.

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Its relatively close to the city of Nice though and just a little ways North of Cannes, under an hours drive from both I'd say.

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Before our trip I did a bit of research on the town and based on photos that I saw online, I originally thought that it was a really small town in the mountains, another "Perched Village," similar to Eze. It wasn't like that at all though.

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Grasse was much much larger than I expected; more of a mid-sized city than a small town in fact.

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It was spread out along the hillside and very sprawling as you can see in some of the photographs.

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It did have a very nice old quarter though, which was less spread out and more concentrated in one area. Of course, that was where we spent all of our time in the city.

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The old quarter was located on a hilltop and we parked our car some distance below and then walked up to have a gander.

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One of the first things that we saw when we got to the old quarter was the perfume factory. There are three of them in town and you can actually create your own perfume there. That could be a neat activity to do in town if you have the time and interest. I myself like the idea of playing "mad scientist," and creating a new scent.

Note the clouds in the photo below, they almost look like sent fumes coming off the building. That would be fitting if it were truly the case.

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There is also at least one museum in town, which is one of the only museums dedicated to perfume, scents and aromas.

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Smell is such an under rated sense in my opinion. What do you think?

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Brief History


The perfume industry began in Grasse in the 16th century when the city began to supply raw materials to Persian scent makers. From there it began to produce soaps from flowers such as rose, hyacinths and iris, many of which were grown in the surrounding area.

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Today, the town is unofficially considered the perfume capital of the world and still grows many scented flowers that are used to make aromas. Source

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A little ways past the museum was a large platform that was an outdoor park area of sorts. We saw one of those yellow tour trains there that are common in most tourist spots in France.

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There were a few look out spots up there as well with some great views of the town and city below.

Pink Umbrellas


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The old quarter was decorated with these large pink umbrellas.

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They were a really nice pop of color, a whimsical contrast against the yellow of the surrounding buildings and the blue of the sky.

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They were a neat little art piece that made the old town all the more charming.

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As you can see I took quite a few photos of them.

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I don't know how many there were but there were a lot of them hanging up and down the streets.

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I guess what I'm trying to say is, get ready for a bunch of pictures of umbrellas!

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The old quarter was made up of narrow streets winding their way through tall buildings.

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There were plenty of artisinal shops there selling ceramic pottery, artwork, and of course lots of scents and soaps.

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My wife bought a bottle of her favorite alcohol there, Mistral Gin. It's pink Gin and infused with 12 different botanicals.

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We drank the gin back in France but kept the bottle as a souvenir. I guess we're nerds that way. Maybe we will use it as a water carafe or something, a little trick I learned from some of the restaurants that we ate at in Europe.

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We explored the old town for a decent amount of time, just wandering the streets and seeing where they would take us.

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In a way the umbrellas acted like a sort of guide for us. They were clustered tightly in the main shopping street and much more sporadic as you moved away from the area.

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If we wanted to make our way back to the center, all we had to do was follow the pink markers and pretty soon we would be back to where we started.

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At one point we found the village cathedral.

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It wasn't as grand as some of the gothic churches of some of the larger cities in France but it had a lot of character with its 30m tall square bell tower.

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There was a wedding, or maybe a confirmation taking place that day so we couldn't go inside.

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In front of the church was a nice little plaza with this square monument at the center.

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I don't recall what the monument was in honor of, but I did think that it was impressive when standing in front of it.

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Behind the church I saw this sign pointing to various cities around the world. The cities appeared to be very random at the time (ex. Marblehead USA?). I found out afterwards that they are all Twin/Sister cities of Grasse, which I thought was pretty interesting.

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We wandered around a little more but didn't see anything else of note.

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That's usually a good indication that it's time to leave a place, so we headed back to our car and back to Aix-en-Provence for dinner.

Overall, Grasse was a bit different than I was expecting, but in the end we really enjoyed it. We learned a little about perfume and fragrance, and bought my wife's favorite gin as a souvenir. I'll always remember Grasse for its pink umbrellas and really hope that they are permanent fixture that others can enjoy in the future as well.

Well thats it for now. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

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I love those pink umbrellas!

Do you think this is where Neil Degrasse Tyson is from? :0)

😂 I don't know about that but its a good theory. Neil-of-Grasse It makes a lot of sense actually

Hehe, it just leapt into my mind when I read it :O)

It was nice to hear about the perfume and fragrances, and now I want to do further research.
I also like the road signs and the umbrellas of course. Subtle things like those can have such a big impact on the aesthetics of a place:)

Yeah the small details are a nice touch and give a lot of character and interest to a place. I wish we could have done a little more ourselves re: perfume, like go into the factory or museum but we had the dog and it was mid afternoon so we had to skip that stuff. I still find stuff like that to be interesting though.

Yeah for those Pink umbrellas, you got some nice shots, I like the one with the shadows of the umbrellas for some reason.

I think I went there when I was a kid. Smelling is best my sense, maybe it's my large nose, I don't know 🙃

Gin is also our fav alcohol, how much was the bottle if I may ask? (we're still allowed to talk about alcohol right?🤣)

Yeah the umbrellas made for some nice shots.

Smell is probably my worst sense unfortunately lol. 😕

I believe the Gin was 49 euro at that location. So it wasn't cheap but wasn't horrendously priced either. Mid price range I guess. We typically bought cheaper stuff for standard mixed drinks and saved that for drinking on ice or with tonic. I'm not a gin expert by any means but we found it to be quite smooth and aromatic.

France is a country that I have been dreaming about for a long time... Thank you @leaky20 for telling me about this beautiful city Grasse. That was a really rosy reference for you :)
By the way, there are colorful umbrellas in my city of Lviv as well. And I also saw them in Kemer.

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Yeah I've seen umbrellas in many places. They seem to be a popular decoration in cities. Probably because they are colorful, light and easily suspended and also cheap. They are a perfect decoration really.

That gin looks interesting, never heard of that brand.

oh and the pink brollies certainly brighten up the avenue

Yeah the Gin is specifically from that area. I'm not sure if its sold outside of France or not.

I usually drink Tanqueray Gin, that is superb stuff.

I've seen but I don't know if I've tried it or not lol. I'll have to pick up a bottle.

in the UK it is expensive but it is quality.

I see. Gotcha. They sell it at our liquor store so I'll take a look.

Wow, what a cute place 🥰 so beautifully perched up on the mountain.
The old centre is stunning. And the pink umbrellas ☂ are so funny.
It adds something extra to the streets 😎

I think too that small is an underrated sense. As it can change a mood fully, in an instance.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful captures @leaky20 😊
Enjoy your Sunday and have a good start of the new week!

Yeah the umbrellas were my favorite part, as you can see from the many photos that I took lol.

Enjoy your Sunday as well!

Yep, I saw… so cute 😊😎
Thank you kindly @leaky20
Have a wonderful new week ☀️

Eye-pleasing cityscape!
I would have gone into the museum and the factory and would have left the town with my unique scent 😄
I can only imagine the flowery notes in the air near the factory 😍

It would be fun and a great souvenir to make your own perfume and who knows, maybe you would invent a unique smell that everyone loves and wants for themselves?

Now you are talking! 🤑

Woah such a picturesque town. Might also smell like perfume all over, is that the case?! And great gin souvenirs! Thanks for sharing your journey and your great photographs @leaky 20 :)

I couldn't smell any perfume in the air but I'm sure a lot of the residents were wearing it. Maybe they get a home town discount?

hehehe could be could be

So glad to know about the perfumes. How I wish I can go to a place like that. I really love how the photos catched my attention especially the street with a pink umbrellas. ,♥️😍

Yeah the umbrellas are very eye catching indeed. So colorful!

Wow! This is such a wonderful place to roam around and of course, it is great to know about the perfume. Now, I have an idea in case somedays I can go there, I need to find this place. Thanks for featuring this. Awesome work!

Yeah it's a neat place and being dedicated to perfume makes it pretty unique.

I wonder if people in Grasse loves to wear perfume everyday! Im trying to imagine a very fragrant city just by looking at your post. ☺️ And your right the clouds above the factory looks like fume.☺️

Yeah I don't know. I didn't get close enough to any strangers to smell them 😆 😂
One would think that perfume would be a part of people's lives there though.

Great post! Thanks for sharing. The pink umbrellas caught my attention

Yeah the umbrellas were very whimsical and fun to see.

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