Grasse Jasmine Festival – La Fête du jasmin- Grasse – Provence

The French Riviera is home to a myriad of different events throughout the year. It is the celebration of the summer flower - jasmine harvest - held the first week-end in August and marking the 70^th anniversary this year. The traditional Festival which marks the beginning of the Jasmine harvest, so important to the town of perfumes.

Did you know?

All of jasmine and May roses that go into Chanel 5 are grown in the protected fields around Grasse. Chanel does not use flowers grown anywhere else

I have made my dream come true. Having worked directly for Chanel uploading my Chanel perfumes and cosmetics related translations to their server for few years, learning about all the secrets of perfumery art and  the famous “noses”  crucial for each of their perfumes, it was my greatest dream to visit Grasse one day. Especially during La Fête du jasmin - the flower which I was named after.

I take a break from the wafting swoony scents and head for Grasse’s International Perfume Museum, once an 18th-century mansion. Inside I find an amazing collection of perfume-related artifacts and paraphernalia from all corners of the globe spanning three millennia. I marvel at rare phials holding fragrances adored by the ancient Egyptians and exotic and beautifully embellished pomanders used by European aristocracy.

It’s here that I learn more about Grasse’s perfumed past. During the Middle Ages the town produced high-quality but unpleasant smelling leather goods, especially gloves. To mask the aroma, local flower essences were applied and scented gloves became all the rage. Grasse prospered as a result. New taxes, however, caused the leather industry to decline.

The perfumeries creating the scents were unaffected and continued to flourish. By the 1700s, more flowers than ever were being grown in the fields. Ever more prestigious perfume houses flocked to the town, concocting scents so sublime that Grasse soon became known as the perfume capital of the world.

Today, fewer perfume houses are based in Grasse. I visit Molinard’s, a French perfumery established in 1849. A tour takes me around the distillery and the collections of Baccarat crystal and Lalique glass. The highlight is a perfume-making session where I create my own scent from an array of aromatic herb and flower oils. I’m pleased with the result. It’s uplifting and, like my memories of Grasse, lingers on.

Festival jasmina u Grasu – Provansa

Francuska Rivijera je dom mnoštvu različitih događaja tokom cele godine. A ovo je proslava u čast letnjeg cveta -  berbe jasmina – koja se održava prvog vikenda u avgustu koji ove godine obeležava 70 godišnjicu. Tradicionalni festival koji označava početak berbe Jasmina, toliko važnog cveta za ovaj grad parfema.

Da li ste znali?

Svi cvetovi jasmina i majskih ruža koji se koriste za Chanel 5 parfem se uzgajaju u zaštićenim poljima oko Grasse-a. Šanel ne koristi cvetove koji se uzgajaju bilo gde drugde.

Ostvarila sam svoj san. Pošto sam nekoliko godina radila direktno za Šanel i slala direktno na njihov server sve svoje prevode u vezi sa Šanel parfemima i kozmetikom, saznajući o tajnama te umetnosti kreiranja parfema i svih onih proizvoda za negu lepote kao i o čuvenim “nosevima” ključnim za svaki njihov parfem, to mi je bio veliki san da posetim Grasse jednog dana. A posebno tokom Festivala Jasmina – cveta po kome sam dobila svoje ime.

Pravim pauzu od vatrenih obeznanjujućih mirisa i krećem ka Grasse-ovom Međunarodnom muzeju parfema, nekada dvorcu iz 18. veka. Unutra nalazim neverovatnu kolekciju perfamskih artefakata i rekvizita i predmeta iz svih krajeva sveta koji pokrivaju period od tri milenijuma, Divim se retkim bočicama koje sadrže mirise koje su obožavali drevni Egipćani i egzotično i lepo ukrašenim pomenderima[1] koje je koristila evropska aristokratija.

Ovde saznajem više o Grasse-ovoj parfemskoj prošlosti. Tokom Srednjeg veka grad je proizvodio visokokvalitetnu robu od kože ali neprijatnog mirisa, naročito rukavice. Da bi zamaskirali taj neprijatni miris primenjene su lokalne cvetne esencije, a mirisne rukavice su svuda postale hit. Kao rezultat toga Grasse je prosperirao. Međutim, novi porezi su uzrokovali smanjenje kožne industrije.

Proizvođači parfema koji su kreirali mirise nisu time bili pogođeni i nastavili su da se razvijaju. Do 1700-ih godina, u poljima je gajeno više cvetova nego ikada. Sve prestižnije kuće proizvođača parfema su hrlile ka ovom gradu, tako da su praveći tako uzvišene smeše mirisa učinili da je Grasse uskoro postao poznat kao parfemska prestonica sveta.

Danas se u Grasse-u nalazi manji broj parfemskih kuća. Posećujem Molinard, francusku kuću proizvođača parfema osnovanu 1849. Obilazim destileriju i kolekcije Baccarat kristala i Lalique stakla. Vrhunac posete je parfemska sesija tokom koje sam kreirala svoj miris iz niza aromatičnih biljaka i cvetnih ulja. Zadovoljna sam rezultatom. To me uzdiže, i  kao i moja sećanja na Grasse, zadržaće se dugo.

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[1] Kuglica napravljena od raznih mirišljavih stvari