When visiting Grasse you can stop at the historic perfume factories like Fragonard, Galimard and Molinard to learn about fragrance making, but you should definitely also have a look at the Musée International de la Parfumerie; a very unusual museum and a topic I had never explored before. As the small city of Grasse at the French Côte d’Azur is considered the world capital of perfume you can have a deep-dive here and fill your nose with lots of different scents.
The museum starts with the history of perfume making in ancient Egypt, tells the stories of well-know fragrances like Eau de Cologne and Chanel No. 5. You can learn about the composition of perfumes, the production of scents and see the marketing and how it developed over time: with fancy brand names and beautiful bottles. A museum that was in fact much more interesting than I expected. 😉 It is the biggest museum in the world focused on this topic and was open in 1989 to celebrate 200 years of perfumery in France.
The Musée International de la Parfumerie is located at the city center of Grasse not far away from the central Place du Cours Honoré-Cresp and the bus stop Grasse Centre-Ville. If you’ve got sufficient time you should visit the gardens of the museum as well and by that I don’t mean the tiny but beautiful garden next to the museum; there are also the Jardins du MIP halfway on the way to Cannes (979 chemin des Gourettes, Mouans-Sartoux; ten kilometers afar) and they’re ordered according to the scents of the flowers used for fragrance production.
Musée International de la Parfumerie (MIP)
2 Bd du Jeu de Ballon
06130 Grasse
Grasse
France
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