the town and its flowers
Why perfume lives in Grasse: leather, flowers and a royal charter
A short history of how a hill town became a perfume town.
Reserve your place at the bench ↗Grasse at a glance
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Early trade | Leather tanning from the twelfth century |
| Turn to scent | Scented gloves for Renaissance fashion |
| 1614 | Corporation of glover-perfumers recognised by the crown |
| Flowers | Jasmine, rose, lavender, myrtle, orange blossom, mimosa |
| Jasmine | About 27 tonnes harvested each year |
Hides first
Grasse began as a tanning town. The leather trade gave it workshops, water and craftsmen long before anyone bottled a flower.
Gloves that smelled
Tanned leather smells of the tannery, so makers scented it. Perfumed gloves became fashionable and gave the town a second trade.
A royal nod
In 1614 the crown recognised a corporation of glover-perfumers, the point at which perfume stopped being a sideline.
The hills
The slopes around Grasse grow jasmine, rose, lavender, myrtle, orange blossom and mimosa, a palette that reaches from the Riviera coast into the hills.
The harvest today
About twenty-seven tonnes of jasmine are picked each year. The old photograph on this page shows women gathering jasmine into baskets.
Then and now
Molinard, founded in 1849, is one of the houses that grew from this soil, and its bastide workshop is a way into that story.