In this thread, Snaps asked and I never answered...
We went to two of the three parfumeries in Grasse that have their own label, Fragonard and Molinard.Originally Posted by Gingersnap
Both sell only through their limited number of shops in France or through the internets. We got the tours (the same I had been on 10 years ago with someone else :D) and tutorials on how perfumes were/are made, including the discussion of extraction of Jasmine essence by the placement of petals into beef and pork fat.
At the end, they (of course) bring you to the shop and provide you with samples of each of the (evidently) four classifications of women's perfumes -- natural, floral, fruity, and oriental (I had thought that was a non-PC word these days). My girlfriend bought a couple in each category, but my favorites were Eau Fantasque, a fruity with strong scents of grapefruit (Fragonard), Capucine, an oriental with fragrances of green tea and rose (Fragonard), and Fleur de Chocolat, a self-explanatory scent with bits of glitter (Molinard).
She bought around 400 Euros worth of various perfumes, bath oils, soaps, etc. at the two places. As to prices, the eau de perfumes were around 30 Euro ($50) per 50 ml. Don't know about shipping as we lugged all of them back in the suitcases, but the links to the two I provided above do provide shipping costs to the US.
And, although it's entirely off topic, I'd like to post another picture from France; this a particularly good one (even if the photographer says so himself) of the Palais de Papes in Avignon...
