L’Artisan Parfumeur: Poetry in a bottle

Now quickly, tell me: Why is Paris called "The City of Lights"? Over lunch at a chic resto near the Arch of Triumph, I asked this question, and before my Parisian friend could tell me the answer, he threw back the question at me.

Then he quickly answered: "No, it’s not about those electric lights that make the Arch of Triumph or the Eiffel Tower or Champs Elysees look dazzling at night. It’s about those intellectuals and writers during the Age of Enlightenment, such as Diderot and Balzac. Enlightenment ... lights... city of lights, get it?"

But of course. On my Air France flight to Paris, I remember reading in Air France Madame that philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau recounted in his Confessions how disappointed he was upon arriving for the first time in Paris. He had always dreamed of a city full of "gold and marble palaces," but instead he found a labyrinth of "narrow, dirty and malodorous streests" lined with "ugly blackened houses."

Today, some two centuries later, Rousseau’s words still reflect the exasperation of many tourists in Paris. Except this writer.

I never really thought of Paris in terms of dazzling lights, or gold and marble palaces. For me, Paris is about awesome museums, quaint homes of French greats from Coco Chanel to Victor Hugo, exciting restos, and fashionable little shops.

And on this trip, I discovered one more fashionable little shop, right across the Louvre and overlooking the Seine River.

Simply called L’Artisan Parfumeur, this little shop, which opened in 2003, looked exactly the way Rhoda Campos of Rustan’s Essenses hinted it would be: So original, so fearless, so poetic, so humorous.

As I entered, the first thing I saw were dainty little kites swaying from the ceiling. "They are fragrant fresheners for the room," Sarah Canonica, the shop manager, explains. But of course. The whole shop is redolent with scents that vary as you step across the room.

This is a perfume shop, but doesn’t look like the usual perfumery with bottled scents lined up on the wall. It looks cozy, artistic, even quirky. The bottles are laid out on tables and on window sills, and they come in dainty, exquisite packaging. Upstairs, there is a mini-library where books sit amid flowers and leaves, and a conference room with un-matching modernist chairs. Nothing stiff in this shop.

"L’Artisan is not just about perfumes," Sarah explains. "It is about lifestyle. Our collections of scented objects are inspired by the trends in the world of fashion and decoration."

Created in 1976 by perfumer Jean Laporte, L’Artisan Parfumeur offers fragrances inspired by nature and "familiar scents found in the sweetest corners of the memory. These fragrant objects, with a hint of fun, bring out the child in all of us."

Then Sarah tells us what makes this quaint shop so different.

"First of all, we create scents because we like them. We don’t conduct tests to find our if the scent will fe sexy. It’s the customers who will decide that.

"We don’t create scents for men, or scents for women. Our scents are for both men and women."

She narrates how L’Artisan’s bestselling scent, Mure et Musc, was created by accident in 1978: "The chemist made a mistake by putting 30 percent musk instead of 3 percent. She apologized but it turned out nice. Musk lasts for days and is a very clean scent, you see. It started with a citrusy note, basil, then blackberry and musk."

Both men and women all over Europe loved it. "That’s what happens when people discover L’Artisan, they become addicted to us, they don’t wear anything else."

There’s Papillons, which has been a bestseller in the US. And Premier Figuier, the first-ever scent based on a fig. And Fleur de Carotte, using carrot, cucumber, ginger, tarragon and rose.

L’Eau de L’Auto "Trefles a Quatre Fleurs" is a hit on the road. Other bestsellers from this perfume hothouse are their scented candles which really permeate and energize a room for hours and hours.

"Our big candles last 60 hours, the smaller ones, 12 hours. Right now, we have 29 scents for our bottled fragrances and 15 scents for candles."

Sarah says L’Artisan’s scents are created by about four noses. Among perfume companies, she declares that only Chanel and Jean Patou have noses working full time for them. All others are working with brands just to complete their fashion line.

Herself a chemical engineer aspiring to be a nose, Sarah says she never gets bored mixing and matching different ingredients to create a distinct smell. L’Artisan, she adds, is never a boring shop as it offers more than just perfumes.

First, it has a library where clients can read rare lifestyle books. She picks her current favorite, The Perfume by Patrick Suskind, "about a man with a powerful nose, it’s a current hit."

Second, L’Artisan offers a short half-day seminar called "The Perfumer’s Worshop" where you learn everything about scents, and get to create your own scent, with a sachet to hold it and a diploma to prove that you may yet be a nose someday, who knows.

Third, L’Artisan can also customize perfume for clients. "It’s like having a haute couture dress. You can even give it a name and we put it in a bottle made in Murano, and make as many bottles as you please. It’s a very exclusive service enjoyed by our clients especially from the Middle East."

Lastly, the shop also does custom-made sachets, mini-candles, and mini-bottles of scents for wedding tokens. Their packaging is so delicate, so artistic, so beautiful.

L’Artisan has been acquired by Cradle Holdings, a US-based group that has marketed this brand in 800 corners around the world. But then these are the best corners, for sure. In the Philippines, L’Artisan Parfumeur is available only at Rustan’s Makati, Rustan’s Tower at Shangri-La Plaza and Rustan’s Alabang. It is one of the top niche brands in the industry, known mostly by the well-traveled set.

These are the types of tourists who do not look for dazzling lights and marble palaces in Paris. They smell their way to quaint little shops where there is poetry in perfumes.

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L’Artisan Parfumeur is located at 12 Place Vendome, 75001 Paris, with telephone 01-40641564, fax 01-40641575. The workshops cost about 95 euros. For details, e-mail contact@artisan_parfumeur.com.