Delightful visual and olfactory pleasures await a visitor at the Château of Chamerolles, an early 16th c fairy-tale castle with an elegant red and black brick facade, built in a lozenge pattern, complete with turrets, cannon holes and even a double drawbridge across the moat. Chamerolles was built by Louis XII’s Chamberlain, Lancelot I du Lac (not to be confused with Lancelot of King Arthur’s Round Table), who chose the architecture of a traditional medieval fortress rather than the then new, early Renaissance style.

During the religious wars, his grandfather, Lancelot II, who had converted to Protestantism, invited co-religionists in the region to seek refuge in his castle. A major restoration project of the buildings in 1988 unveiled perfectly preserved Protestant inscriptions in the Chapel that had been covered up since1655.

Because of the high concentration of perfume, cosmetic and hygiene industries implanted in the area today, it is jokingly referred to as «Cosmetic Valley ». Hence, when massive restoration of Chamerolles was completed and regional authorities (to whom the castle now belongs) were looking for a theme to attract visitors, they decided to open a perfume museum in one of the Château wings.

The surrounding gardens were restored according to the original layout, including sumptuous, purely decorative flower beds, a space for rare and exotic plants, a maze, and a garden with vegetables, aromatic herbs, healing plants, etc.
In the North and West Wings of the Château, several large rooms were redecorated and furnished, each one illustrating a specific historical period of importance in Chamerolles’ history.

The two-floor South Wing houses the «Perfume Walk» proper. Visitors learn that though perfume making was an ancient art, it knew an unprecedented upswing in the 16th century. The art of distillation was improved and recently invented printing presses rapidly spread formulas and techniques. The Renaissance was a time of quest for knowledge, beauty and sophistication and sweet scents became an important part of a refined life-style.
On the other hand, paradoxically, it was also the period when doctors prescribed the «dry toilette» and prescribed the medieval bath tub which still was used – at least by the prosperous classes – in the early 1500s. According to the medical profession, water made the skin more prone to catch disease. And Christian clerics considered taking a bath to be an immoral pleasure.

Hence people and habitations didn’t exactly smell of roses – unless roses were transformed into fragrances or spread out fresh in living quarters. Scented plants were hanging from ceilings to mask foul air, and men and women alike hid tiny perfumed sachets inside their clothes. The «dry toilette» consisted of rubbing parts of the body with scented linen wash cloths («toilettes»). Hair was treated with fragrant powders (apparently also good for keeping parasites at bay) and all kinds of aromatic oils and pastes were used to cover up body odors.

The colorful and sweet-smelling «Perfume Walk» takes visitors through a 16th c perfume laboratory, complete with raw materials and accessories, including an old still. As scent-makers were afraid of being mistaken for witches, they would hang a cross in their work place.

A 16th c bedroom illustrates the contemporary preoccupation with beauty and sweet smells, showing various kinds of makeup, ointments and perfumes under a ceiling decorated with bouquets of dried aromatic plants. Further along the Walk, we see braziers where rosemary or juniper berries were burnt to purify the fetid air.

In the 18th c, the bath returned to fashion and heavy perfumes made way for more discreet «eaux précieuses», like the famous Eau de Cologne (or « water from Cologne») which today is a generic name for lightly scented «waters». Together with the restored honor of the bathtub, a new hygienic accessory appeared, the bidet.

A private, so-called «cave à perfums» was a mandatory possession of any elegant citizen in the 18th c. The case contained various fragrance bases and tools for making personalized scent mixtures to match the owner’s moods and attires and adapt to different social occasions. It was also the century when many new and exotic plants, like vanilla, bergamot, patchouli and various spices entered European perfume laboratories.

Industrialization and a newly enriched bourgoisie in the 19th c invigorated the demand for cosmetics and perfume. «Scent factories» appeared, the first of them in Grasse which is still an important perfume center. 18th c brands, such as «Roger et Gallet», were soon to be followed by other, today still famous, labels like «Guerlain». The vaporizer was invented in 1859 and quickly put to use by the fragrance industry.

As the Walk continues into the 20th c, visitors learn that Monsieur Coty was the first to combine natural and synthetic essence, thereby breaking ground for modern perfume-making. Coty also modernized the containers, asking glass artist Lalique to design extravagant bottles.

Towards the end of the display, the museum shows a so-called «perfume organ», a horseshoe-formed piece of furniture with 270 bottles of different fragrances, natural as well as synthetic, lined up on its shelves. Until the 1920s, this «organ» was used by «les Nez» (or the «Noses »), i.e. those great artists who will put several years of research into creating one new fragrance that will make someone feel very special.

 

For further info please contact:
Château de Chamerolles
45170 Chilleurs-aux-Bois
Ph. 33-(0)2 38 39 84 66
chateau.chamerolles@cg45.fr

http://www.orleanscity.com/tourisme/chamerolle.htm

Le château de Chamerolles : visite parfumée

Bâti à l’aube de la Renaissance par Lancelot 1er du Lac, selons les plans d’une forteresse médiévale, Chamerolles dresse ses tours au coeur d’un pays d’étangs, au coeur de la Beauce et au coeur de la Gâtine. Il fut au XVIIe siècle un haut lieu du protestantisme avant d’être rendu à une vocation plus résidentielle. Propriété du Conseil Général du Loiret depuis 1987, Chamerolles et son jardin Renaissance, qui avaient sombré dans un lent abandon ont été entièrement restaurés.

Avec la promenade des parfums le château est aujourd’hui voué à l’histoire des senteurs et à l’art du parfum. Il offre un véritable parcours initiatique au fil de l’histoire des parfums et de l’hygiène depuis le XVIe siècle jusqu’à nos jours au travers d’un ensemble de salles reconstituées dans le goût de chaque époque.

Du jardin Renaissance créé à la fin du XVIe siècle par Lancelot II du Lac (petit fils de Lancelot 1er, bâtisseur du château) de retour d’Italie, ne subsistaient en 1987 que friches et fossés … Il a aujourd’hui retrouvé tout son charme d’autrefois.

Tout à la fois jardin d’utilité, d’agrément et d’apparat, il se compose de six parterres. On y goûte le charme du “Préau”, ses bancs de briques et son mobilier disposés au cÅ“ur d’espaces gazonnés; le “Carré de broderies” composé de buis taillés et de thym entourant un obélisque de pierre; le “carré des plantes rares” où oeillets, absinthe et acanthe côtoient, autour d’un puits, de nombreuses plantes odoriférantes.

 

 

In 1969 Paco Rabanne  wanted to launch its first perfume. The brief gave to the perfumers was decadent and provocative : during a walkway in front of the sea, a couple make love on the bonnet of a Jaguar. Perfumers had to imagine the smells of the bodies and metal add to the smells of the nature around the couple.

The result is  a perfectly balanced, sparkling fragrance of crisp herbals, classic floral and powdery woods.

Calandre de Paco Rabanne : parfum de 1969

L’histoire de Calandre correspondait bien à l’idée de liberté évoquée par l’année 1969. Pour le lancement de son premier parfum le brief de Paco Rabanne aux parfumeurs était de créer un parfum qui retranscrirait l’odeur d’un couple faisant l’amour sur le capot d’une Jaguar, l’été ,au bord de la Méditerrannée.

Calandre fut le premier parfum à introduire une note de synthèse métallique : mélange d’amer et de crémeux. Renouvelant le genre floral aldéhydé , il y introduit le muguet en vedette aux côtés de l’ylang-ylang, du jasmin, du chèvrefeuille et du gardénia. Cette nouvelle note verte, aldéhydé et incisive donne son côté métallique à Calandre. Son fond est boisé, poudré par l’iris et se remarque une note vétiver très douce, due à l’acétate de vétyvérile et au santal de mysore.

 

A veritable plant bomb, it gives a strong, green note, gustative and woody, which adds much naturalness in perfumes.

Egypt, the Nile delta…

Heat, the soil enriched by the mythical river over thousands of years, intensive irrigation and filtered shadow, it is the ideal life for the leaf of the violet.

It appreciates these surroundings so much that it unfolds in long green ribbons under the friendly shade of the date palms. Its other particular favourite spot is just a stone’s throw from Grasse, at Tourette-sur-Loup where it spreads over terraces, this time under the shade of the olives, when they still exist! The violet leaf loves the Mediterranean climate.

In the subtle play of light and shade, green waves of thousands of heart-shaped leaves display their delicate veins on a background of chlorophyll. So tightly packed, almost asphyxiating, they form a shield protection the shy, fragile, buds of the future flowers.

An image of timidity and innocence and yet the strong perfume characterised by the violet is not so reserved. Nor its social image. Born in the grass, it has adorned bishops and archbishops. Black, the color of mourning the world over, violet became the royal black, what social climbing! The nineteenth century was devoted to it : at the opera hundreds of women held a bouquet of violets. Although born in the shade  it loves exposure!

Even more ambiguous is that it is intimately linked with seduction and the games of transient loves. A beautiful destiny for a flower which appears so modest and discreet, which in the world of lovers is only surpassed by the rose.

In perfumery too, its destiny has been less successful than its great rival. But it had master trump. The leaf…To begin with only the flower was used in perfumery. The first plantation around Grasse date from 1867. The perfume was extracted by “enfleurage”. Fresh, iridescent, powdered, it was the incarnation of femininity for generations of women. At the end of the last century, the appearance of extraction solvents allowed the leaf to be used as well. Thus, until the 40’s perfume was extracted from both the flower and the leaf. Today we do not use the perfume for the flowers. The yield from extraction is so poor that it has become more profitable to regenarate it with synthetic products.

Also the leaf rests alone in its ability to liberate its own special scent. And what a scent! Nothing synthetic is able to match it.

With galbanum it provides one of the only two natural green tints used in perfumery. A concentration of plant power unique in the perfume makers’ palette. Paradoxically it becomes mild when blended, friendly, benign, and conciliatory with other raw materials. In short, it is unquestionably diplomatic. In perfumes, the concentration of chlorophyll that it releases adds an evergreen crispness, naturally spontaneous, energising… A veritable plant bomb!

A green ambassador, it gives a very good illustration of olfactory modernity and ecological conciliation… And if the flower is only a virtual representation, the leaf, in a context of thirst for nature and true emotions, exhibits a very promising future…

Discover our BLANC VIOLETTE

La feuille de violette, ambassadrice du végétal

Egypte, delta du Nil… Chaleur, sol enrichi pendant des millénaires par le fleuve mythique, irrigation intensive et ombre tamisée, c’est l’idéal de vie de la feuille de violette. Elle apprécie tellement cette ambiance qu’elle se déroule en longs rubans verts sous l’ombre amicale des dattiers. Son autre lieu de villégiature privilégié reste à quelques pas de Grasse, plus précisément à Tourette-sur-Loup où elle s’étale en terrasses, cette fois-ci à l’ombre des oliviers, lorsqu’il en existe encore! La feuille de violette affectionne les climats méditerranéens.

Dans les jeux subtils, d’ombre et de lumière, des vagues vertes de milliers de feuilles en forme de coeur affichent des nervures délicates sur une robe chlorophylle. Serrées les unes contre les autres jusqu’à l’asphyxie et formant un bouclier, elles cachent, timides et fragiles, les boutons des futures fleurs.

Une image de timidité et d’innocence, et pourtant le parfum puissant et typé de la violette n’est pas vraiment réservé. Son image sociale non plus. Née dans l’herbe, elle a couvert de sa livrée évêques et archevêques. Le noir est le deuil de tout le monde, la couleur de la violette est devenue le noir des rois, bel exemple d’ascension! Le XIXe siècle l’a consacrée : à l’Opéra, des centaines de femmes avaient un bouquet de ces précieuses violettes à la main. Née à l’ombre, elle est de celles qui aiment la lumière!

Plus ambiguë encore, elle est aussi intimement liée à la séduction amoureuse et aux jeux plus ou moins impossibles des amours passagères. Beau destin pour une fleur d’apparence modeste et pudique qui, sur le terrain amoureux, n’a été supplantée que par la rose.

En parfumerie aussi son destin a été moins heureux que celui de sa grande rivale. Mais elle avait un autre atout maître. La feuille…Au commencement, seule la fleur était utilisée en parfumerie. Les premières plantations dans la région de Grasse remontent à 1867. Le parfum était extrait par enfleurage. Frais, irisé, poudré, il a incarné la féminité pour des générations de femmes. A la fin du siècle dernier, l’apparition des solvants d’extraction a permis de traiter également la feuille. On a ainsi extrait le parfum des fleurs et des feuilles jusque dans les années quarante. Aujourd’hui  on ne capture plus le parfum des fleurs de violette. Il est devenu plus avantageux de le reconstituer avec des produits de synthèse.

Aussi la feuille reste-t-elle seule à libérer son esprit parfumé. Et quel parfum! Aucune note de synthèse n’a réussi à l’égaler.

Avec le galbanum, elle fournit une des deux seules notes vertes utilisées en parfumerie. Un concentré de puissance végétale unique dans la palette du parfumeur. Paradoxalement elle sait aussi se faire douce dans les formulations, aimable, souriante, conciliante avec les autres matières premières. Bref elle arbore des qualités de diplomatie indiscutables. Dans les parfums le concentré de chlorophylle qu’elle délivre ajoute une fraicheur persistante, une naturalité spontanée et beaucoup d’énergie. Une vraie bombe végétale !

Ambassadrice des notes vertes, elle présente une très jolie illustration de modernité olfactive et de pacification écologique…Et si la fleur n’est plus qu’une représentation virtuelle, dans un contexte de soif de nature et d’émotions vraies, affiche un futur très prometteur…

Pourquoi ne pas redécouvrir à l’occasion notre BLANC VIOLETTE …

Thank you Grain de Musc for your great post “My top ten spring fragrances” and your review on our NOIR PATCHOULI ! If you want to see her article :

http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/

Merci Grain de Musc pour votre bel article “Mon top ten des fragrances de printemps” et plus particulièrement votre revue sur notre NOIR PATCHOULI. Si vous voulez lire l’article, voilà le lien : http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/