The French Riviera and the Home of Perfume

 Our Tauck river cruise on the Rhone and Saone Rivers began with two days in Cannes, at the famed Hotel Martinez. It was hard to act like the hoipolloi, though, because within half an hour of our arrival, the skies fell and it continued to rain for most of the afternoon and evening. All those thoughts of sitting on lounge chairs under umbrellas looking over the sea went up in smoke. And it was a chilly 12 degrees along with being wet.

There was a walking tour at 2:30, but as it was still raining, we decided to skip it. The welcome reception and dinner for the cruise took place on Friday evening, and we had a chance to meet the tour directors and all 77 of our fellow guests. So the ship that carries 96 passengers would not be quite full when we boarded. As usual, we are the token Canadians in the group, with another couple from Australia and 6 people from Hong Kong making up the rest of the 'foreign' contingent.

Our room. Not the best view, but at least it was ready
when we got there at 11 a.m.

The entrance portico. Not a single Honda or Toyota
in sight - Lamborghinis, Porsches, Bentleys
and Mercedes everywhere

A look across to the seaside on Saturday morning before
we left on our tour - hence the blue sky

The main lobby bar and restaurant has a 
buffet area that is closed off by the sliding doors
when the buffet is not open

British artist Damien Hirst has a permanent
display that includes some pipe-cleaner
style sculptures 

Another of Hirst's pieces

The buffet has a wall of French Breads!

Ever heard of dessert for breakfast? This
is a cooler with a good selection
of sweets like eclairs and small cakes

This is a little out of order but related to the hotel. After our Saturday tour, we went down to the bar/restaurant and had a light dinner. At the same time, we watched the comings and goings of the many locals who also stop in. One thing we noticed is how dog-friendly all of the restaurants are. At one point we had 3 dogs all within sight of each other, and none of them reacted at all.

This cute little one was at the next table and
spent most of the time napping under her owner's chair. She
is a guest at the hotel, too.

This photo wasn't so much of our calamari appetizer as
of the woman at the table behind Larry, with the chihuahua
on her lap. Zoom in on the photo if you can, to also
see her very long fingernails. The lady to the left of the pillar
had a poodle on her lap, too.

The most interesting Salad Nicoise I've ever seen. That
black thing is actually a hard boiled egg in a truffle coating

Larry opted for Chicken Raviolis

The hotel was really lovely and I can imagine what it must be like during the Cannes Film Festival, which happens later in May.

Bright and early Saturday morning we headed off on our first tour, a visit to the towns of Grasse, home of perfume production in France, and Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Our first stop in Grasse was at a flower farm, Le Domaine de Manon, which is run by a third generation farmer, Carole. She gave us a tour of the gardens, explained the growing and, very important harvesting process. She grows her roses, jasmine and tuberoses exclusively for  Les Parfums Christian Dior.

Carole explained that since the industry began, Grasse had hundreds of small flower farms, but with the price of land increasing, the labour-intensivity of the operation and the fickle hand of Mother Nature, there were only 5 left about 25 years ago. She took over the farm from her parents and grandparents and started a local association of flower farmers. Since establishing contracts with the high end perfume producers that provide stability to farmer incomes, the number of farms in the area has now risen to 50, so she has managed to revive a dying industry and ensure the highest quality ingredients to those ridiculously priced true perfumes.

Carole standing in the field as she explains the
harvesting process

The view over the farm to the distant Maritime Alps.

Carole explained how much work goes into maintaining the various plants in the fields. For example, the jasmine is pruned back by hand at this time of year and will bloom for harvest in July and August. It then has to be harvested at a particular time of day so the maximum floral essence comes out. Then the harvest is taken immediately, if not sooner, to the production facility so they can start the extraction process. 

The tuberose, which doesn't look like a rose at all, is actually a flower bulb that has to grow for 3 years, planted and dug up for the winter, before it starts to produce flowers. At the same time, like other bulbs, it multiplies, so there are always new bulbs to start the process.

One of Carole's harvesters gathering the very first roses
of the season

Not only is the growing process very labour-intensive, but the amount of flowers needed to make the first essence, the 'concret', or 'concrete' in English, is fantastic. It takes 300 rose heads to make 1 kilogram of roses. It takes 3,000 kilos of rose petals to make 1 kilo of rose 'concret'. Just think about all the time and effort it takes to get 3,000 kilos of rose petals. 

There are various methods of extracting the essential oils from the flowers. The most expensive is called 'enfleurage' and involves setting the flowers or petals in an oil or fat that absorbs the fragrance over a period of time. Then the oil is cleaned with alcohol, bits of the flowers are removed, and what remains is the 'concret'. The rest of the process is the blending of the various concretes by someone who is called 'The Nose' because of his or her very specially refined (and there is a specific course of study for this) sense of smell. The final blend is called the 'absolute'. For things like Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette it would be blended with increasing amounts of alcohol, and is also not made using this particular process. No wonder perfume is so expensive!

Just-picked rose heads. They smelled heavenly!

The garden in front of the visitor's reception and
shop. Carole makes Rose Jam out of some of her
plants, and it is delicious. I bought a jar to bring home.

After leaving Le Domaine de Manon, we drove into the old town of Grasse for a walking tour. 

Grasse dates back from the 12th Century, when the main industry was tanning leather, but this produced a very unpleasant odour. When the fashion turned to the wearing of gloves due to the entry of Catherine de Medici into French royalty, tanning really took off, and they needed some way to cover the stench. At the same time, people in the countryside had started to grow flowers to sweeten the air there. Eventually Jean de Galimard, a tanner in Grasse, came up with the idea of scented gloves and glovemakers also became perfumeurs. Ultimately, the perfume industry was separated out and became the main economic driver in Grasse as tanning died off when leather goods were produced elsewhere.

Looking into the town square of Grasse

The Cathedral of Grasse. We were allowed a very quick
look inside as there was about to be a Christening
and the family was already gathering.

The altar. There are apparently also paintings
by Rubens in the cathedral, but we couldn't stop
long enough to find them.

Next we drove to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a medieval village that is known as a mecca for artists, especially Marc Chagall, who included the town in many of his paintings. He lived there for 19 years and is buried in the town's cemetery. It is a walled town of tiny 'streets', more like alleyways. It was pretty busy when we were there, and after a short walking tour for orientation, we were given free time for lunch. Needless to say, it was quite busy, and we ended up in a small Vietnamese restaurant, a first for us, on a side street. They also had a packed patio, so we figured the food would be quite good.

View to the town on our way from the bus
parking lot

The Colombe d'Or Restaurant, opened in 1920, is now
also a hotel and has received famous movie stars and
royalty for meals and stays for many years

This was our lunch - a platter of appetizers like chicken, pork and beef spring rolls, and then we both had a salad with chicken and shrimp

This is the Place de la Grande Fontaine, known traditionally as the place where people would come to exchange gossip and news.

While we were waiting for the group to assemble again to head for the bus, we watched some of the locals playing Petoncle, similar to Bocce, on the dirt fields just outside the city walls.

It was a very interesting day, and when we got back to the hotel, we changed and had the interesting evening we described above.

On Sunday we transferred from Cannes to the ship in Arles, via the WW II Rhone Cemetery, with a stop for bathrooms, a walk and lunch in Aix-en-Provence.