Paris: History, Fashion and…Perfumes?

By Kasia Dworzecka

Traveling to Paris for the first time, I was only knowledgeable about some of its history, landmarks, and fashion. What I learned through being there is that France as a whole also loves perfumes. On our class trip, we had a scheduled tour of a fragrance museum called Fragonard Parfumeur. Before our class, I had no idea there was even such a thing as a fragrance museum. It is not something you see or hear much about in Chicago, so it interested me greatly to learn more about it.

The museum tour

When we first walked in we got a tour of the museum. It turns out Fragonard actually has been making its own fragrances since 1926. The museum tour consisted of a great amount of history, the process of making the fragrances and even a room where one can test his or hers senses trying to guess if certain perfumes smelled like lemons, roses, cocoa, coffee, lavender, strawberry, mint or orange. The museum also includes a small shop downstairs where one can buy original Fragonard fragrances.

The feature story process

After many tries to come up with a good feature story about Paris for class—from French architecture to French fashion—the unique history and characteristics of the museum are what drew me to write a profile piece on it. One customer even said that he would not have come into the store itself if there was no museum showcasing its history. The fact that fragrance stores are seen in abundance around Paris also interested me to learn why the Fragonard museum was even created in the first place.

Fragonard was really a good experience and a closer look into French culture. Needless to say, I myself bought a few sample fragrances from the store as souvenirs of these originally made perfumes.