03/06/19 – Grasse, FR – Day 5

The Seminar I was in was a total of 3 days, (the three days that were in-between now and my last post), and each day I was able to do something different. My mornings are very peaceful, and in the past three days, I’ve developed a routine. Get up, get ready, eat breakfast on the terrace, and finally cab to the studios. The ride to the studios are brief, and the drivers are so incredibly sweet. Because Grasse is such a small town, I’ve already had some drivers more than once. All of them incredibly patient with my “learning” French, and willing to help me learn as much as I can about the area, the language, and the culture. Upon arriving at Galimard on the first day, I was a bit overwhelmed. I was a bit early and thus the first to arrive; therefore I was paranoid about whether or not I was at the right place and if I had enough euros in my bag to get to where I needed to go. Eventually, when people started showing up, and the classes started, I realized that the workshop that the rest of the people who came was different than mine, so I was the only person in my Seminar which mean that the entire Seminar was set and based on what I wanted to learn and accomplish.

The first day was the basic introduction. I learned about what goes into fragrance production, both the business and the chemical side, and about scent recognition. For a long time, I tested maybe over 70 scents, and my instructor (who was the principal perfumer at Galimard) told me to connect each and every scent to a memory or event in my life to help me remember which smell was what. She taught me how the absolute (the “soul of the flower”) is extracted. How essential oils are obtained, and how and why people confuse them when they are very different products. And finally I learned how a parfum (also an Eau de toilette, an Eau de parfum and cologne, but I worked only with parfum) is made, and how if I were to start my own company, the extensive tests and forms I would have to fill out and pass. After six long hours, with a lunch break at my hotel, it was time for me to leave. I went and had dinner in town, and promptly fell asleep.

The second day, we focused on parfum composition, the three main parts (head [the scent you smell only within the first 2 hours], heart [what you smell for up to 4 hours] and body [ the smell that can stay up to and maybe more than 24 hours]), and which types of scents (floral, citrus, “oriental,” aromatics, woody, and spicy) go into those categories, and trying to figure out the category that I enjoyed, or which mix of these I enjoyed. After a blind test to test what I liked, which was powdery floral, I made my first scent, a feminine one. The whole time the perfumer was looking over me and making sure that the decisions I made for my scent didn’t clash, and that the final product was indeed feminine. While I was making my final decisions, she said that my tastes were extremely elegant and refined and that she didn’t expect such “expertise” from someone my age. I was so It took a little over than half a day, and by the time I finished, packaged and labeled my new scent the day was over.

Today, the final day, I did a lot. I got to the studio about 45 minutes early and began to prep my station because I knew this morning I would be making two new scents, a masculine and a unisex, by myself. After about 4.5 hours, I went on a guided tour of the factory where I saw both the old and the new distilling process, and also the “scent room.” I learned the history of the company and also of the town.

Every day was different. However, one thing stayed consistent. These scents are so incredibly strong that after smelling about 5-7, you are recommended to go outside and take a minute break for fresh air. Even after doing that, in a couple of hours, everything starts to smell the same, and your nose starts to burn. In addition to a red nose, the amount of smells that your brain has to process makes you incredibly sleepy.

Tomorrow is my last day here. I’m despondent to leave, it is such a beautiful town rich with history and amazing scents, and I look forward to returning in the future.

03/03/19 – Grasse, FR – Day 2

The time it took to get here was in total – over 15 hours. From getting to the airport to connecting flights to drama and language barriers, the journey was incredibly stressful and tiring. I flew from PHL to Madrid, Spain. Then a quick trip from Madrid, Spain to Nice, France. Flying from Madrid to Nice was surreal. The airport was only in Spanish, and not knowing Spanish, I mainly had to guess what was going on. The plane we then got on was miniature, one of the smallest I’ve ever been on, but luckily I had a window seat for the quick 3-hour flight. The plane went over many deep bodies of water, over massive mountains, and loads of small villages and big cities, until finally, we reached our destination, a seaside town in France only 40 minutes away from Grasse.

After arriving at the hotel, checking in and getting my bags sorted I fell right asleep and didn’t wake up until the next day. Today is my second day being able to walk around the small Italian-esuqe town of Grasse. Yesterday, I took a walk into town, which was about 40 minutes from my hotel. The city of Grasse is small and is filled with color. There are many parks and public spaces, as well as small pedestrian filled alleyways. The buildings surrounding those allies are mostly a dusty orange, appearing to be a common theme in most of the architecture in the area. I bought some things I forgot to bring, stopped to grab a coffee and walked around enjoying the view, the smell of the flowers, the feel of the old rubble and the sun on my face, and hearing the French all around me it felt incredibly peaceful and exhilarating all at the same time.

Today, I learned that the hotel used to be a park, so many of the grounds are perfectly manicured, covered in olive and orange trees, grande terraces and large balconies. So, after eating a delicious breakfast, I spent almost 3 hours walking around the hotel grounds, looking at the trees and mountains, having conversations with the staff of the hotel in French, and hearing the excited cheers and car horns honking from miles and miles away. It was a beautiful day filled with fantastic sites, delicious food, and exciting sounds.

02/28/19 – PHL – Introduction

Ever since I’ve been little, I’ve loved the idea of going to France. I’ve been taking French since I was little and singing French songs. I used to joke that the fact that my last name was the name of a city in France was fate, that I was destined to go, never would I think that for a week I would end up going alone.

Hello! My name is Kreider Grasse, and I will be going to Grasse, France for a week to study southern French culture and also to be making and studying perfume. By following along, you will hear about how it is to adapt to French culture and also enjoying loads of pictures of what my days, hopefully, different from each other, will entail. I hope to bring light to a different culture, a different city and a different type of senior project.

I’m not quite sure what my days will look like, other than my seminar at Galimard Perfumery. I want to keep my days as open and free as possible. Go into town for coffee or light snacks, live in the moment without the worrying and stress of due assignments. To have an open day, in a city I don’t know, is pure and utter independence. I am so happy to start exploring