Grasse is possibly the world perfume capital. There are three large parfumeries in town. We took the Molinard Parfumerie tour. This tour included a bit of history on how perfume used to be made using animal fat and flowers.
The Molinard Parfumerie is right in the town of Grasse, so they do not actually make the perfume there, but they have a show room to demonstrate some of the methods used. The area surrounding the town is fields of different flowers used in making the scents. Some of these flowers include jasmine, roses, mimosa, lavender, tuberose, and orange blossom.
We learned to only try a maximum of 4 perfumes on yourself. The four places are the inner wrists and the inner elbow regions. Also, it is important to wait 5-10 minutes to let the fragrance blend with your skin. We sampled several eau de toilettes, then walked around the town of Grasse until our 4:00 tour was scheduled. What a difference the extra time made on the scents that we liked. Some scents that started out with a nice tropical fruit scent, changed over time to a heavy musky scent that I did not like as well. While several others maintained a nice fresh almost citrus scent.
What a fun way to spend the day. But I have to admit that a little perfume goes a long way. And my olfactory senses were ready for a break at the end of the day. I had lost the ability to distinguish different scents. And I would have loved to have the break of smelling the little jars of coffee beans like they have in some stores.
We also learned that parfum or perfume has the highest concentration of essential oils and essences at 15-30% while eau de toilette has 5-8% and eau de cologne has 2-5%. This corresponds to the price as well as the number of hours that the scent will last on your skin.
I would recommend the tour and sampling the fragrances in the shop. The tour is free and the fragrances are reasonably priced. Also the town of Grasse has a parfume museum and other attractions.