A UNESCO tangible heritage site sitting between the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea, the French town of Grasse has been synonymous with perfume making since the 16th century. Luxury beauty powerhouse Lancôme is now offering select visitors a peek inside its Grasse-based operations, giving tourists and industry experts an inside look at the famed perfume region.
The history of fragrance production in Grasse dates back to the Middle Ages, when the town and its residents specialized in leather tanning. In a bid to tackle the strong smells of dead animals and lye, a local tanner used local floral scents to create scented leather gloves. The demand for the gloves spread through the French court and upper classes and Grasse’s tanners soon abandoned leather production in favor of full-time perfume manufacturing.
Grasse’s flower meadows of irises and jasmine have evolved into local treasures and the town is now one of the global centers of perfume production, knowledge and technology. While the infamous sweet-smelling roses continue to attract scent-loving tourists each year, Lancôme’s Domaine de la Rose brings a unique addition to the region, inviting a limited number of visitors to explore the estate responsible for Lancôme’s most exclusive perfumes.
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Every second Wednesday of the month (excluding public holidays and the month of August) and each European Heritage Day, select visitors are invited to step inside the walls of the estate for a guided tour of Lancôme’s flower fields, perfume distillery and the iconic Rose House. The innovative tour takes guests through the entire perfume-making process, starting with the agricultural cultivation of the land, to the extraction process and finally, to the brand’s select methods of fragrance composition.
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Aside from being breathtakingly beautiful, the Domaine de la Rose is a fully eco-conceived agricultural estate, giving visitors a real-time look into the steps being taken to preserve Grasse’s natural resources and biodiversity. With more than 250 species of flora and fauna present on the estate and an emphasis on organic polyculture farming practices (the land has been cultivated through organic farming for over six decades), the symbiosis between Grasse’s stunning landscape and Lancôme’s signature scents is clear.
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“We are immensely proud of this project, which reinforced our presence in Grasse, the global birthplace of perfumery. Our aspiration was to renovate the original house in harmony with the rest of the Domaine de la Rose while highlighting the modern codes of Lancôme and recovering as much land as possible,” said Francoise Lehmann, Lancôme global brand president.
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Visually, the crown jewel of Domaine de la Rose is The Rose House. Designed by architects Lucie Niney and Thibault Marca, the jaw-dropping contemporary conversion is an educational destination for workshops, training sessions and events celebrating Lancôme’s fragrance heritage. A fabulous site in itself, my first look at the monochrome pink building and O-shaped entrance immediately outshone any photo I had seen of the structure, and wandering through its colorful walls was one of the true highlights of the tour.
Both a photogenic and architectural masterpiece, The Rose House is also a pinnacle of eco-design, awarded a BDM Gold Certification for its design and construction. The walls of the structure are insulated from the outside with lavender from the estate and inside, a geothermal heat pump and Canadian well eliminates the need for conventional air conditioning.
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Inside, the perfume organ, created by Atelier Gohard, the historical manufacturer responsible for the gilding of monuments such as the Château de Versailles and Statue of Liberty, sits as the proud centerpiece. Visitors can take a seat among the hundreds of vials of raw scent materials and experience the range of Grasse’s floral scents.
Throughout my tour of Lancôme’s Domaine de la Rose, it became clear this was not just any garden walk through the South of France. Lancôme’s ever-evolving sustainable practices are essential for preserving the beauty, landscape and traditions of the region of Grasse, and more widely, the future of modern-day perfume.
Visitors can book the free one-hour guided tour of Domaine de la Rose through the Lancôme website.
