Grasse-The City of Perfume

Today we woke up bright and early once again and headed on the train for Grasse, the Perfume Capital of the World!  It was about a 40 minute train ride and a 15 minute bus ride to our first perfume factory called Fragonard.  We got a tour around the factory which is still in use and learned how they make perfumes and soaps.  We even learned what a "nose" was--a person who chooses the scents and mixes them to make the perfumes.  It was very interesting to see how something I use everyday is made and processed!  After the tour we got to smell some of their perfumes and eau de toilettes.  I bought a few of each which were way cheaper than they are in the US.  After everyone was done looking around, we went on to another perfume factory called Molinard.  This factory is no longer in use for perfumes, but they do make soaps there.  I found it very cool comparing the two factory's processes to see how they differed and who had the competitive advantage back when they were both full time factories.  After this tour ended, we again had time to shop around and smell their perfumes.  We even got to make our own small bottle of perfume using different scents!  I made mine with "Marine," "Rose," "Flower," and a little bit of "Vanilla" and "Amber."  It smells amazing and I'm so excited to wear it and have people ask me where it's from so I can respond and say I made it and I made it in the Perfume Capital of the World! :) We got paninis for lunch then headed back to Antibes and got back around 3:30pm.  No big plans for the rest of the evening, just relaxing and exploring the town some more!  I will post pictures either tonight or tomorrow! Love you all.