Monaco to Paris

Today we flew to Paris and have boarded the Scenic Gem for our cruise up the Seine River to the English Channel. We will be seeing lots more of beautiful rural France and some very interesting historical sites including the Australian World War One memorial at Villers-Bretonneux and the invasion beaches of Normandy. Watch this space!

Before we left Monaco we were lucky enough to get photos from our hotel room of a Viking line cruise ship coming into port (see below). Pretty impressive ship.

We haven’t yet mentioned our excursion to the Fragonard Perfume manufacturing plant in Ezes near Monaco. Fragonard perfume is famous in France and we were invited to check out a large range of scents. Our guide told us all about how perfume manufacturers refine and vary their products in competing for the market. They all enlist the aid of a small group of people – only 50 in the whole world – called Noses who are renowned for their keen sense of smell and appreciation of the type of scents the market will enjoy. To become a nose takes 10 years training.  You have to do a Chemistry course for 3 years, then spend the next 7 years perfecting your craft.  All “noses” are independent and provide the major companies (eg Dior, Chanel etc) with new scents as required. Most will make no more than 1 new scent each year, so you can imagine that they are paid huge sums for the patent. They also have an agreement that they will not sell the same mix of essences to any other company, however some of the “noses” try to imitate and replicate some of the more high end perfumes.  Perfume should always be bought in a metal case, as exposure to light and air will decrease the intensity.  You pay for true perfume essence, however it becomes Eau de Parfume within a year due to exposure.  (See who listened to the talk!!!!) Different sort of job!