Row upon row of lavender flowers. Growing and harvesting flowers
is a very tedious occupation. No machine is used in the fields; the flowers are so delicate that automation
would destroy them.
Many perfume have been named after famous French
fashion designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent and Christian
Dior. Some well known persons in show
business or sports have also lent their names to perfumes,
including actress Elizabeth
Taylor and tennis player Gabriella Sabatini.
The perfume industry in France has flourished since King
Louis XIV's reign. The Sun King and his courtiers did not take
much care of their personal hygiene.
Instead, they relied on
perfumes to mask odors. Today, although attention
to hygiene
is much better, the perfume industry is thriving and worth millions
of dollars a year. French perfumes are considered the
best in the world, and they are exported to more than one hundred
countries.
The town of Grasse in the South of France has been the
center of the perfume industry since the sixteenth century.
At that time, Grasse was also a center for leather tanning.
It became the perfume capital of the world when Catherine
de Medicis, queen of France, set the fashion for scented leather
gloves. Today, the leather tanneries are gone, but the forty
perfume houses founded in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
are still in business. Grasse is surrounded by field upon field
of flowers: lavender, mimosa, rose, orange blossom, ylang-ylang,
and jasmine. The flowers are handpicked, and it may take a group
of workers one whole hour to pick 15 pounds (7 kg) of roses.
Harvesting jasmine flowers is even more time-consuming: one
hour for 1 pound (0.5 kg) of flowers. To pick the flowers, the
workers have to be in the fields by 5:00 a.m.
A perfume is made from a combination of essences, extracts of
flowers, or other natural sources. Some perfumes require as
many as three hundred essences. The blending of essences in
exact quantities is the most important step; it gives life to
a perfume. The person who creates a perfume is called a "nose."
Noses are experts who can identify one scent from six
thousand smells with just one whiff. Very few people have the
ability to become a nose, and those who do have it are highly
sought after in the perfume industry.
It takes thousands of flowers to make a drop of essence. One
ton of roses yields only 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of essence. Various
methods are used to extract essence from flowers; all are very
painstaking: steam distillation, extraction by volatile solvents,
or enfleurage (ahn-fluh-RAHGE). The last method is used for
expensive or potent essences. Pungent blossoms are layered with
fats for several months until the fat has absorbed all the aroma
of the flowers. Then the oils are "washed" out with alcohol.
When the alcohol evaporates, it leaves the pure perfume
essence behind.
Extract from “Countries Of The World France”, Written by Roseline Ngcheong-Lum. Times Edition Pte Ltd. Singapore, 1999.
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