Inside Grasse, where flowers for Chanel No. 5 have been grown for more than a century
In a Nutshell
Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, originated from masking leather trade odors with local flowers in the 15th century and has supplied Chanel No. 5's signature rose centifolia (12 per bottle) and jasmine (1,000 per bottle) for over 100 years, despite fields shrinking from 12,000 to 124 acres due to real estate and cheaper imports from India and Egypt. Chanel's exclusive 1987 partnership with the Mule family, ongoing revival efforts by Mayor Jérôme Viaud (including UN heritage status and blocked development), and investments from brands like Lancôme, Louis Vuitton, and Dior are restoring flower cultivation in Grasse's unique Mediterranean-Alpine terroir. Master perfumer Olivier Polge and others emphasize Grasse jasmine's distinct grassy-fruity-green tea notes, hand-harvested at dawn and extracted via a 150-year-old process, blending natural and synthetic elements to preserve authenticity in the $20B fragrance industry.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
In 15th century France, the medieval town of Grasse had a problem with the stench of dead animals from its booming leather trade. A clever idea emerged: a pair of gloves infused with the scent of local flowers to mask the stench. This sparked a new industry. Flowers were planted, techniques invented, and what began as a coverup grew into an art form, establishing Grasse as the perfume capital of the world.
In 1921, when Coco Chanel wanted to create a signature scent for her fashion house, she went to this town in the south of France where fields once bloomed in abundance but have faded over the decades. Now, a revival is underway. Flowers for the world's most famous perfume, Chanel No. 5, have been grown and gathered in Grasse for more than 100 years.
This is the rose centifolia, nicknamed the May rose because it blooms in spring. Cultivated in row after pink row, it is a flower worthy of a serenade. Piano notes play over speakers; farmers say the vibrations help the buds bloom evenly. 12 of these roses go into a bottle of Chanel No. 5.
The real star is this tiny white flower, jasmine. It opens at night and is harvested as the sun comes up. 1,000 jasmine flowers go into a bottle of No. 5, giving it the floral scent that has sat on grandmother's dressers for generations.
At Chanel's annual jasmine harvest, Olivier Polge spends many of his working days in the fields of Grasse sourcing flowers. He is Chanel's master perfumer. In the fragrance world, he's known simply as a nose.
What should I call you? A perfumer? A nose? I prefer perfumer because people always think that my nose is very special. Is it not? And I don't smell things that you don't. The work of perfumer is not to smell things that nobody smells, but it is to identify the scents.
His job is to create new fragrances for Chanel and make sure the classics smell as they always have. It is part art, part science, a sommelier of scent. Polge can detect thousands of smells with a sniff.
Do you have a favorite smell? I love the scent of iris. Violet powder, slightly woody.
I was very self-conscious getting ready this morning, putting my perfume on, thinking you were going to smell it immediately and judge it. Did you when we met? No, but you forgot that we are surrounded with such strong scents of flowers. This is overpowering.
According to Chanel, five bottles of No. 5 are sold somewhere in the world every minute, fitting since it's named after Coco Chanel's lucky number.
The iconic designer came to Grasse during its golden age, searching for the world's finest and most expensive perfume ingredients. Over the decades, farms began to shut down as the French Riviera became a luxury real estate market and cheaper flowers were grown abroad in places such as India and Egypt.
Would Chanel No. 5 really smell that differently if you sourced the jasmine from elsewhere?
Yes, it would definitely have an impact. Far from me the idea to say one is better than the other, but you have to recognize their differences.
Grasse jasmine is grassy and fruity with a note of green tea, delicate like the flower itself.
In the early 1900s, Grasse had about 12,000 acres of flower fields; today only 124 acres remain. Where nearly 2,000 tons of jasmine were once harvested each year, now there are fewer than 15 tons grown mostly by one family.
Since the 1800s, for six generations, the Mules have farmed this land.
What has it been like to watch the decline here in Grasse? It's very sad. It was a pity to see this evolution, but we couldn't do anything about it. It's how it went. So, we had to hang in there for many years.
Joseph Mule is the 87-year-old patriarch.
How often are you in the fields? Every morning, 7 a.m. Is he still the boss? Yes. He'll always be the boss.
Joseph's daughter, Colette, runs the office. Her husband, Fabrice, oversees the fields.
Who's done the most picking here? We all picked jasmine. We had to help. In my case, it was my grandparents. And they would tell us, "If you wish to go and swim in the sea, first you have to help us pick flowers." So every morning, no fun. Pick first. That's exactly what we did.
They say their jasmine has a distinct scent because like grapes used in wine, it matters where it's grown. Here in the hills where the Mediterranean meets the southern Alps in a cool climate and rich soil,
You can't put Burgundy in a bottle of Bordeaux because people will tell you, "No, that's not Bordeaux." For the fragrances we do here for Chanel, it's exactly the same thing.
In 1987, Chanel offered the Mules a deal to grow and sell flowers exclusively to them. The first time a luxury brand partnered directly with Grasse farmers.
They say even the birds smell good here in Grasse. Thank you very much. I think so.
Grasse mayor Jérôme Viaud says this partnership helped revive the region.
A lot of people thought the perfume industry here was over. Yes. A lot of people say it's the end of the perfume. Why did you think you could make a difference? Because we have the knowledge and we have the weather and we have everything to get success. So, we think it's possible and we are working on it every day.
Since taking office in 2014, the mayor has filled the streets with thousands of pink umbrellas, a tribute to the rose, and a picture-perfect backdrop for the 2 million tourists who visit Grasse each year. He helped designate Grasse a United Nations cultural heritage site recognizing its centuries-old perfume-making traditions and blocked development on 170 acres of land so that new flower fields can be cultivated.
A lot of mayors want the development to come to their town. What was your fear with that development? We want development but we want to choose our development. Specific to the perfume industry. Definitely. Yes. Is there a renaissance in the perfume business underway right now? I think so. You saw it.
Over the past decade, major luxury houses have invested in Grasse by tying their brand to its reputation. Lancôme built a farm where it grows roses for its fragrances. Downtown, an abandoned perfumery became a workshop for Louis Vuitton. Christian Dior's former estate was restored, preserving the gardens that inspired the designer's first scent.
Honoring Blanc is a master nose for one of the world's largest fragrance companies, creating perfumes for brands such as Valentino and Gucci.
Everywhere I go, I put my nose. I smell everything. Yes. And smell it. It's patchouli.
People don't realize how much work there is behind creating a fragrance. Sometimes I need 20,000 trials. 20,000 is how long it's taken you sometimes. How do you know when it's right? I would say there's two ways. Your clients stop. This is practical or instinct. It's like music.
As part of the Grasse revival, her company DSM-Firmenich opened Villa Botanica 5 years ago, a private retreat for its top perfumers to discover new smells, the good and the bad.
What can you do with this? Smell like feet.
There's an undiscovered world of scent out there still, I believe. So, I think there are plenty of new odors to discover, plenty of new plants to discover. For a perfumer, it's heaven.
Does Grasse still hold the same significance that it did to the perfume industry? Yes. And I think even more than ever, you know why? Because we're going back to authenticity. What does that mean when you're talking about perfume authenticity? For me, when I come to Grasse, it's a place where I can slow down and smell the value of an ingredient because everything is speed, speed, speed, speed today.
Fine fragrance is a more than $20 billion a year industry largely built on synthetics bottled in a lab. Blanc says man-made scents are essential to modern perfumery.
You create perfection by balancing notes that are unpleasant with notes that are pleasant. If your apple is too perfect, you say, "Oh my god, it's not organic. It's not natural." So the imperfection and this off note are very important for your fragrance. It's kind of like baking. You have to put a little bit of salt in the cake mix.
Chanel also uses synthetic scents created in a lab. The secret formula for No. 5 is kept in a safe in Paris. Chanel No. 5 has more than 80 separate scents; the most important are from Grasse.
Starting at dawn, when the jasmine flowers are at their most fragrant, each one is picked by hand, too delicate for machines. The harvest ends before the midday heat can damage the petals, which are kept covered in wet cloth to stay cool. Workers line up to weigh what they've picked. 4,000 jasmine flowers equal just one pound.
The blooms are rushed to an on-site factory where their fragrance is extracted using a 150-year-old technique developed in Grasse.
You have to work really fast. Yes. Because what happens when they get brown? The smell changes. It smells like bad fruit. Like a ripe fruit.
Crate after crate of jasmine is layered into this vat and steeped overnight like tea. Then the flowers are removed, leaving behind withered petals and a liquid that cools into a thick wax. It took 35 million jasmine flowers to get this 22 lb tub. The wax is turned back into a liquid, filtered again into the most concentrated form of jasmine.
So, this will be sent up to our factory near Paris and a few drops will go in each bottle of No. 5. Does the jasmine today smell like the jasmine originally used in No. 5? I think so. I think this is why we are very careful in maintaining the way we harvest the jasmine, the way we extract the jasmine and we do it exactly as it was at the beginning.
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