The tradition of perfume manufacture goes back many centuries in
France, and is extremely important to the French economy. The town
of Grasse in the French Riviera has been producing perfume since
the sixteenth century, when immigrant Italian glovemakers discovered
the beautiful scents of the region's flowers, and began using them
to make their leather gloves smell nice. Grasse is now famous as
France's perfume capital – its gentle climate, fertile soil,
and protective barrier of surrounding mountains make it ideal for
growing flowers such as roses, jasmine, and lavender, which provide
the raw material for perfume. Huge numbers of the flowers are needed
to make small amounts of concentrated perfume – around 4,000
kilos of roses are needed to make just one kilo of essential oil.
Scents are blended and perfumes invented by people known as "Noses"
for their very sharp sense of smell. Perfumes are carefully named
and packaged, and are labelled by the big fashion names such as
Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Coco Chanel. Huge amounts of money
are spent on advertising, and the most expensive perfumes are launched
all around the world. In France, nine out of every ten women, and
one out of every two men use perfume. A recent trend is the production
of perfumes for children.
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