Parfumerie Fragonard

Parfumerie Fragonard is a perfume and cosmetics factory in Èze, inaugurated in 1968. It sits at the foot of the rock, overlooking the sea on the Riviera coastal road between Nice and Monaco. Its modern architecture stands out against the medieval village above. The factory belongs to the Fragonard brand, founded in 1926 in Grasse, a town known for its perfume-making tradition.

A guided tour takes you into the cosmetics laboratory, where the brand makes its creams and skincare products. You see the stills for steam distillation, a process from antiquity, improved by the Arab world by the eighth century. Enfleurage is another technique: the hot version, maceration, steeps flowers in heated fats, a practice from ancient times. Cold enfleurage was developed for jasmine and daffodil, delicate flowers that cannot stand heat. Workers used to spread odourless grease on glass frames and cover them with flowers. The method stayed common in the Grasse region until the late 1950s. Solvent and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction have largely replaced enfleurage, though the old method is still explained and sometimes demonstrated. The perfumer's organ is a stand where every essence bottle has its place. Perfumers compare making a perfume to composing music: the perfumer blends woody, chypre, fruity and floral notes into an accord.

In the soap workshop, Fragonard's signature rose and duck-shaped soaps start as neutral granules made in France. Workers mix the granules with scented essence, crush them into flakes, extrude a malleable cake, then cut and stamp it into shape. Shower gels, body lotions and creams also come from the Èze workshops, scented with the brand's fragrances. The factory still makes solid perfumes too, called concretes or pomades: more concentrated than eau de toilette, with no alcohol. The tour ends in the store: perfumes, eaux de toilette, soaps, candles, diffusers and gift sets fill the displays. The fragrances cover every olfactory family, from floral and fruity through chypre and woody to oriental.