Follow your nose through a perfume garden
Les Jardins du Musée International de la Parfumerie, France
Walking through the meadows of pink, white and red rose blooms in May at Les Jardins du Musée International de la Parfumerie is such a joy. Delicate petals, miraculously arranged by nature into sturdy cups, conjure up images of ladies in hats hobnobbing over afternoon tea or 18th-century still life masters bent over easels. The perfume’s sensual elegance, natural grace and period romance make the heart sing. Little wonder then that the centifolia rose has long been the most precious muse for the famous perfumers of this part of southern France.
Find your nose
Designed in 2010, the gardens form part of the International Museum of Perfumery (MIP), located in the nearby Provençal town of Grasse. They showcase flowers and plants which have been used in the town’s perfume industry since the 16th century when local tanner Galimard ingeniously scented a pair of gloves to disguise the unpleasant stench of leather. By the early 1900s, Grasse was the world’s largest producer of perfumery’s raw materials and the gardens – covering 2.4 hectares of agricultural land around
