Submitted by Isabella Bonvicin on the 2024 Winter BUAD program in Paris, France…
A rare day off from site visits and class meetings gave us an opportunity to explore Paris on our own. We decided to use our day to visit Musée du Parfum located in the 9th arrondissement. We began our visit with a guided perfume-making session. Our tour guide, Sasha, detailed the different components of fragrance notes, and how the fragrances are extracted. The head notes that we would be working with were very citrusy and were strong with bergamot. The heart notes smelt of lilac and other florals and the base notes were very ambery and warm with hints of almond. We were then given our own perfume bottles and jars of each of the categories of notes and were able to concoct our own proportions of each into our own custom fragrances. Each of our perfumes smelt so wonderfully unique!
After the perfume making session, we took a tour of the museum. The museum is owned by the French perfume company, Fragonard. Fragonard only retails in France and some other parts of Europe, so I had never experienced their perfumes before this visit. Sasha explained to us the background of Fragonard and then the history of perfumery. It was fascinating to see relics of perfumery dating back to Egyptian times and other artifacts of this craft from many different parts of the world throughout different time periods. We even were able to see perfume bottles that belonged to Marie Antionette! We also learned about the perfume making process, and how it has evolved over time to become more modern and animal byproduct-free. Our visit concluded by sampling Fragnoard’s most popular fragrances, and it was fun to see which ones we each gravitated to the most. The Musée du Parfum was such a memorable experience and I know each time I wear my custom perfume, I will always remember the fun we had exploring the museum! (Submitted on January 19, 2024)