# Grasse, the Town of Perfume — The South of France
> The perfume capital of the world in the hills above Cannes — jasmine and rose fields, century-old houses, and a craft that turned a tanning town into scent. Grasse, on the Côte d’Azur.

*Source : https://the-south-of-france.com/en/french-riviera/grasse-perfume/*

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By **The Editors** — _Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes_

Spring 20268 min read Share LinkMail

Grasse stands in the hills behind Cannes and has, for three hundred years, been the perfume capital of the world. It began as a town of tanners; when scented gloves came into fashion the tanners turned to scent, the mild climate gave them the flowers, and the trade has never left. The whole craft of perfumery, UNESCO now agrees, is kept alive here.

## I. The town that smells of flowers

The old town climbs in steep stepped lanes of warm stone, and three of the great houses — **Fragonard**, **Galimard** and **Molinard** — open their doors to show how it is done, from the flowers to the still. The **Musée International de la Parfumerie** tells the longer story; everywhere the air carries something.

“A town of tanners that learned to bottle the spring.”

From the notebook

![Copper stills and bottles in a perfume workshop](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1503696967350-ad1874122058?fm=jpg&q=74&w=1400&auto=format&fit=crop)

Inside a perfume house — the still, the bottles, the long patience of scent.

## II. The flowers and the fields

The scents begin in the fields around the town — the **rose de mai** picked in May, the **jasmine** in late summer at dawn before the heat, the tuberose and orange blossom that go into the great perfumes. A handful of growers still supply the famous houses by name; the **jasmine of Grasse** remains one of the most precious raw materials in perfumery.

![Rows of flowers in a field below hills](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1554149082-75d460afced3?fm=jpg&q=76&w=2400&auto=format&fit=crop)

A flower field above Grasse — the rose de mai, picked by hand at dawn.

## III. Fragonard’s town

Grasse also gave France a painter — **Jean-Honoré Fragonard**, born here in 1732, whose light touch is shown in the museum that keeps his name. Between the perfume houses and the galleries, the town makes an easy day from the coast, and a cooler one: it sits high enough to escape the August heat of Cannes below.

The Practical Carnet · Carnet pratique

### Plan the _visit_

Getting there

About 40 min from Cannes or Nice by car or bus, up into the hills.

When to go

May for the rose, August dawns for the jasmine; spring and autumn for the town itself.

Where to stay

**La Bastide Saint-Antoine**, an old olive estate turned hotel, with the coast below.

Read next

[Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the village of painters](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/french-riviera/saint-paul-de-vence/)

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About the Author · L’auteur

#### Élise Marchand

Travel Editor — based in Marseille

Élise has been driving the back roads of the Midi for the journal since its first issue. She pays for her own rooms and her own lunches — and only writes about the places she would return to.

[More by Élise Marchand — voir ses articles](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/journal/)

Continue reading · À lire ensuite

### More from the _South_

[

![A village on the French Riviera](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1607001516094-d2568b288f1f?fm=jpg&q=74&w=900&auto=format&fit=crop)

Côte d’Azur

#### Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the village of painters

](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/french-riviera/)[

![A table on the Riviera](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1547768126-7baafccffdd8?fm=jpg&q=74&w=900&auto=format&fit=crop)

The Table

#### Six tables worth the detour this spring

](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/the-table/)[

![A hotel on the Riviera](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1567720512899-3a71832bd46c?fm=jpg&q=74&w=900&auto=format&fit=crop)

Stays

#### Where to stay on the Côte d’Azur

](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/stays/)