Woke up this morning and had a lovely breakfast at our B & B--see pix of breakfast room and our hostess Wendy (from New Zealand). Then Vern went off on an exploratory bike ride and when he got back we drove to Grasse to visit the Fragonard perfume factory. Built originally in 1782 and one of the last family-owned artisanal factories in the Grasse region, Fragonard was founded in 1926. The Grasse region boasts a special location that fosters all sorts of flowers and aromatic plants. In the sixteenth century its perfume industry grew out of the rage for scented gloves, made popular by Catherine of Medici. Fragonard has its own "nose", an expert in the detection of scent, which requires 7 years of training; experienced "noses" can detect over 3500 different essences! The second picture shows the technique of "enfleurage", which means that when people started making perfume, they put individual flowers on a layer of fat, changed the flowers every couple of hours and then added alcohol to the fat to distill it to the pure essence of the flower. Much too labor intensive for today, so they crush the flowers and distill the essence; I think the guide told us that two tons of flowers were necessary for 2 ounces of essence. (which is why good perfume is so expensive!).
After the tour, we stopped at the boutique and I bought some perfume that drives Vern wild (at least on the inside--he doesn't do "wild on the outside") and then we had lunch at a little cafe in the old town. Now we're back at the B & B for a well-deserved nap and swim. Beautiful weather still! Also included overall map of bike trip, so you can see how much distance we covered!
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