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The scheduled Congress event for the day was Golf, but for those who
preferred to do something else, there were other excursions available.
We returned to Grasse for the day. The first perfumery we visited was Galimard,
where there were old copper stills in the car park and grounds! |
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We were shown around by an English-speaking guide, who described the
methods of extraction used in perfumery as she showed us artefacts, old
distillation equipment and enfleurage chassis. Then we went through to
the laboratory, and saw long shelves of reagent bottles. |
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We saw alcoholic fragrances being filtered, and finally, the perfumer’s
organ. She told us that perfumers were very rare individuals, who could
only work for about 2-3 hours a day, and only 2-3 days a week! The tour
ended with a visit to the gift shop, where there were a selection of perfumes
to try. |
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We drove further into Grasse, and visited Fragonard which was more
modern in appearance than Galimard; they still had many artefacts, but
you could see their soap manufacturing facilities and their laboratory. |
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Outside there is a perfumed garden, with many labelled perfumery plants
and shrubs: broom, honeysuckle, geranium, orange, verbena, rose, iris,
thyme, rosemary and cypress trees. |
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We visited the centre of Grasse. Inside the narrow streets and alleys
of the old town, there was a market, and a spice stall, with all kinds
of fresh, loose spices for sale, including some red peppercorns (baies
roses). |
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We stopped at a few more shops to buy perfumed soaps and other souvenirs,
and then we found the Musee
International de la Parfumerie. The ground floor was devoted
to artefacts - distillation equipment, but there were also crates of oak
moss and benzoin, centrifuge equipment, smaller laboratory devices, and
then on the first floor there were historic bottles and packaging - arranged
in chronological order. A special exhibition was on the second floor -
detailing perfumery and fashion in the twentieth century. This was a fascinating
look at the relationship between the two, through the decades. There were
examples of shoes and clothing, coinciding with perfume bottles and launches,
and brief descriptions of the history of the period. On the roof was a
garden and greenhouse, with many perfumery plants; there was ylang ylang
(in flower!), ginger, pepper, vanilla and aloe vera, with baskets of olibanum
and benzoin. |
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We drove further up the hillside to look at the view of Grasse from
above. In the Provencal hillsides there were aromatic plants growing -
broom, immortelle and thyme. Then we returned to Cannes to get ready for
the finale of the Congress, the Gala Dinner. |
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All the delegates assembled on the roof garden of the Palais des Festivals
for cocktails. Then, dinner was served in the Salon des Ambassadeurs.
The
menu cards on the tables had scratch ‘n’ sniff "tasters" of parts of the
menu, herbes folles, fruits des bois, and pain d’epices. |
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After the dinner, we were expecting "The Blues Brothers", and some
music started on stage, and some lights, and then the curtains drew back
and about ten people came out with bowler hats and sunglasses on, but clearly
they were the WPC Committee! Jean-Pierre Subrenat introduced each one in
turn, for them to be thanked and applauded for all their hard work, then
Francis Thibaudeau, the Vice Chairman of the Congress, thanked Jean-Pierre
for all he had done. And they announced that the next World Perfumery Congress
would be in New York, in 2004. |
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A few minutes later, the music and lights started again, and the real
"Eight Killers Blues Brothers" came bounding out onto the stage! For the
next hour or so, they played some excellent music, and many people got
up to dance. Then, at the end of their performance, they announced that
we should not rush off just yet, because the "surprise" that we had been
told to expect at the end of the evening was outside waiting for us, and
so we all went out onto the terraces, for a fantastic firework finale in
the bay of Cannes. |
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The fireworks were being set off a boat a little way out to sea, and
there was classical music being played over loudspeakers, and it really
made a wonderful and utterly memorable end to the evening, the day, and
of the Congress. |
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We stayed an extra day to take a drive along the coast, stopping now
and again to take photos of the picturesque views and smell the aromatic
plants in the Esterel. |
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We also went on a nature walk to look at "La Garrigue", a kind
of French "bush land" or "undergrowth", which is quite a specific term,
which when translated literally means "Mediterranean Flora". |
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Near a Provencal vineyard we strolled along a trail, up a hill, and
in the space of a few metres, we found cistus, juniper, rosemary, and thyme
growing wild. We climbed the hill further and admired the Provencal view
- we could see for miles! Afterwards we went back down and drove to the
Domaine
de La Navarre, where we looked at olive trees, cypress, bougainvillea,
oleander, plane trees, and eucalyptus trees. |
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The plane trees and eucalyptus trees had peculiar, smooth bark. |
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Finally, we walked through another field, where there was broom (genet)
growing in the hedgerow. There was hardly anything moving in the field,
it was a hot and still Provence afternoon. As we went back to the car,
we looked at the cork trees beside the vineyard, where they take the bark
to cork the wine bottles. It was a highly fascinating nature walk! |
