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GRASSE
Grasse is 1,148 feet (350 meters) above sea level and 12 miles (20 km) from the coast. It has been the perfume capital of the world since the end of the 18th century and produces over two-thirds of France's natural aromas used in both perfume and food. Believe it or not, it’s almost a billion-dollar-a-year industry. Grasse’s microclimate is perfect for growing flowers. It’s warm but just far enough from the sea air and has plenty of water. The top produced flower is jasmine, which was brought to the south of France in the 16th century by the Moors. Twenty-seven tons of jasmine are harvested in Grasse every year. I took a walking tour of this historic village, which now thrives on the tourism industry. There are countless shops and restaurants to enjoy and most people just make a day trip. Note: The best-selling book and movie, Perfume is about Grasse.

FRAGONARD
By far, the most popular perfume factory to tour is Parfumerie Fragonard. Built in 1782, the factory is one of the oldest in Grasse and Fragonard has been creating perfumes since 1926. Fragonard’s name is a tribute to the famous painter Jean-Honore Fragonard and these days, they produce not only perfumes but also cosmetics and soaps. It’s open every day of the year (including Sunday and holidays) and is tour bus central so get there early. Tours are free and last about 30 minutes and are given in almost all European languages. It’s a good business they have; they suck you in with the free tour and then get you all fired up on French perfumes and their factory-price products. How can anyone say no? Very few do and I wasn’t one of them. FYI: There’s also a private museum on site where you can see a display of 3,000 years of perfume history. Fragonard’s website.



PERFUME WORKSHOP
Perfume workshops need to be pre-arranged by a tour group and are not open up to the general public. I think this is a mistake because it was my favorite experience in Grasse. I felt like I was back in college! I don’t see why they can’t offer these workshops on a daily basis. Our instructor was a "Nose." There are just 500 of these well trained and gifted people worldwide. Everyone in our class was given flasks, eyedroppers and a workbook to record the quantity of ingredients in their fragrance. It was up to us how much more of which fragrance to add in. But as a base, we needed to add a little bit of our nine scents: Brazilian orange, Italian lemon, Italian bergamot, red Italian mandarin, Tunisian neroli, Paraguay petit-grain, verbena, rosemary and lavender. The class was about an hour long and at the end, we all received a diploma as a "Trainee Perfumer" along with our own creations, complete with labels and a box. I named my perfume "Jet 69", for the year I was born.

HOTEL MERCURE GRASSE
Hotel Mercure Grasse is not in the center of the village. It’s down the hill on the outskirts so you will need a car or you’ll have to take the bus to get around. The hotel is perfect for budget travelers. Rates begin at just 80 euro a night and breakfast is included, though I found it to be rather weak. While I was there, there were lots of American kids on a huge European tour staying there. Surprisingly, they all behaved well and although my room had very thin walls, I couldn’t hear them. The 65-room hotel is listed as four stars but I would give it three. It has a restaurant (dinner was much better than breakfast), a terrace, small pool, garden and free parking. The rooms are small but are very clean; there’s a powerful shower and designer toiletries. The best part of the hotel was the friendly staff that was eager to help. The hotel has wireless Internet supplied by the Orange Network so it’s not free but it’s not expensive. What's cool about Orange is that you can just buy a certain amount of time, log on and off when you wish and it's good for 30 days. One hour costs 4.50 euro, three hours for 10 euro, 10 hours for 15 euro and 30 hours for 50 euro. Mercure Grasse, Rue Martine Carol, Grasse 06130, France; Tel.: (+33)4/93707070.

PETANQUE
It was BBQ night at the hotel and before dinner there was a tapenade class being put on by the hotel owner’s friend John who runs the popular Palais des Olives store near the Fragonard factory. I learned there are hundreds of types of olives in the world and 30 different kinds in Provence. To make tapenade herbs, like thyme, basil and rosemary are mashed together with garlic and capers. After dinner, our French hosts challenged us to a game of pétanque (more info on pétanque). It’s southern France’s national pastime; Italians know it as bocce and the English know it as lawn bowling. The hotel had a couple of clay courts so we took them on and got our asses royally kicked. But it was a fun night.

CANDY FACTORY TOUR
When I was visiting Club Med Opio a few weeks ago, we went for a hike starting from the top of Gourdon. It’s a beautiful hilltop village with a crazy view. On the descent, I remembered seeing a half blown up bridge from WWII and I was told that we wouldn’t be going that far down ... it would take too long. Well, when we were driving by this time, to go for a tour of a candy factory and have lunch at a cooking school, we parked right near that bridge. I quickly looked up and there it was – Gourdon! This valley has to be one of the most spectacular settings in the world and has a beautiful waterfall.

CONFISERIE FLORIAN
I was now in the village of Le Pont du Loup, where Confiserie Florian is located. The candy shop has been in business since 1949. It used to be a flower mill and was owned by the founder of Fragonard, Eugene Fuchs. When the bridge was taken out in 1944, preventing customers accessing from the Riviera, Fuch’s son started a flower candy factory. Today it’s a bustling business and they offer free factory tours to see the specialty, crystallized candies being made from rose petals, violet, verbena and jasmine). They also candy local fruit to give buyers another taste of Provence. Like all free tours, this one ends in the expensive gift shop. Of course, the sugar addict that I am, I went to town and spent way too much money ... the place is not cheap and though the candied rose petals were a hit at my neighbor’s party when I returned home, no one ate more than one. The Confiserie Florian is located in Pont du Loup (municipality of Tourrettes sur Loup) on the departmental road D2210, 7km from Tourrettes sur Loup and 10km from Grasse. Confiserie Florian, Le Pont du Loup, 06140 Tourrettes-sur-Loup, tel.: 00 33 (0)4 93 59 32 91.

COOKING CLASS
A one-star-rated Michelin guide chef has capitalized on the tourist Mecca of Confiserie Florian. "Le Chef" as we called him doesn’t speak much English. But his adorable, 13-year-old son, a Harry Potter look-alike, translated for him and he provided cooking instructions in English. But to tell you the truth, there was actually something very charming about the fact that we had a language barrier between us. I actually felt even more like I was in a French cooking school, which was as cool as the actual class. For 35 euro, he’ll teach you how to make his popular yellow peach, verbena, and red currant sugar cookie dessert. He charges up to 80 euro per person to put together a whole meal and has a charming picnic bench dining table to enjoy the masterpiece(s). We just helped him whip up the appetizer, which consisted of a boiled tomato with goat cheese, olive oil and rose petals. Then Le Chef prepared seasoned veggies with leeks and couscous in a courgette flower. Everything here has to do with presentation and flowers. Heck, they even offered rose syrup to add to the wine or water. If I was allowed to carry liquids on the plane instead of worrying about them exploding in my checked baggage, I would have bought a few bottles. CREA-T-YVES CULINAIRE, 585 avenue Saint Philippe Bat A Les Grands Pins, 06410 Biot; Tel/Fax: 04 92 11 06 94, Email: info@crea-t-yvesculinaire.com.

VIDEO
Here's a short Johnny Jet video of my trip to Provence. It's also on YouTube, so it only takes a few seconds to load (though the quality is not as crisp). We also have all the Johnny Jet videos ever made on their servers.

NEXT WEEK
Next week, we fly back to the U.S. for a long weekend getaway. Tune in next week to find out where we’re headed.

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Happy Travels,
Johnny Jet

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Note: This trip was sponsored by Maison de la France.




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