James A.
Yelp
As a scheduled stop on our 'French Riviera in One Day' tour, our one hour visit to Fragonard, ended up being one of our most enjoyable parts of our day.
One thing that can happen on guided tours all over the world is when a retail outlet gives kickbacks to the tour operator for bringing potential buyers to theirs stores. Not sure if this is what happened here, but strangely, it ended in a real good experience.
Fragonard offers free tours, and most of the time is spent in learning about the perfume industry, terminology, and even some hands-on labs. Our tour group dropped us off right before 10:30, and we were led to a waiting room. Ramona was the Fragonard employee who led our tour, and she was lovely.
First she gave an education:
- Every perfume factory has a person, nicknamed 'the Nose', who is responsible for the creation of the smell of the fragrance. He/She must have 10 years of experience/training, and be able to recognize 3,000 different smells. She can only work up to 3 hours a day, since after that the lose their senses.
- there are 4 different types of perfumes, based on concentration of the essential oils vs alcohol; 24% is parfum; eau de parfum 15%; 10% eau de toilette; 5% eau de cologne
- aluminum bottles are better to keep fragrances in, than clear bottles. It can keep up to 10 years.
Next were hands-on:
- you had to match up 8 different fragrances together. We both guessed half correctly.
- we had the chance to create our own fragrance, from 3 different essential oils, and keep the result as a free souvenir.
- we got a walking tour of the factory (it isn't much) where they bottle the parfum and beauty supplies
- we then got to sample their lotions, creams, after-shaves, and parfums.
Of course, at the end, there was an opportunity to buy any of the products. Ramona was our salesperson as well, and got the commission. We ended up getting 5 small bottles of 5 different scents, for a reduced price. They will make great gifts.