Fragonard Perfume Museum

Fragonard is among the best-known parfumeurs in France; its history dates back to 1926, when the company was founded by Eugène Fuchs who named it after the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. There are several locations across Paris, but the one near the Opera is the most fun to visit, as it’s actually a (free) museum showing the art of perfume-making, as well as a shop where you can buy Fragonard products. Be sure to check out the historic orgue à parfums, a multi-tiered collection of bottles resembling a church organ that were used to mix fragrances.

During our brief tour of the Fragonard museum in Paris, our guide explained that the perfume brand, which is only available in France, is named after Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a French painter and printmaker from the Provençal town of Grasse which is known as the perfume capital of the world. Fortunately for us, following our week in Paris, we’d made plans to stop in Grasse as it was on our route from Saint Tropez to Nice. Our plans to visit Grasse were also fortunate since the tour of the Paris museum, while informative, didn’t allow photographs or provide any real insight into how Fragonard’s perfumes are made. Our tour of Fragonard’s facility in Grasse offered more detailed info about the various perfume-making processes and the chemists behind the process who are known in France as the “noses”. Following the tours in Paris and Grasse, we were led to Fragonard’s onsite store where visitors can choose from several perfumes (for ladies), eau de toilettes (for men), body lotions, and the like. http://www.timetravelplans.net/smells-like-fragonard/