Open less than a year after four years of work, the new (PSA) perfumery in Grasse international museum has not only won an area - it was multiplied by two - but also in seduction. The former Eco-Museum, opened in 1989, year of the bicentenary of the French perfumery, richer new collections composed of some 50,000 objects. He proposes above all an invitation to discover the world of perfume in all its facets. "The PSA is the first public collection in the world devoted to the fragrance industry, since the ancient times until today, on five continents," explains Marie-Christine Grasse, curator of the Museum of the city of perfumes, who worked on the project new Museum since 1996.
Supported by Jean-Pierre Leleux, Senator Mayor of Grasse, the realization of the new PSA required an investment of slightly more than EUR 11 million, funded by the city, the community of agglomeration, Department, region and State. Labeled Museum of France, the PSA welcomes deposits of other museums including the Louvre, the Museum of the Branly Quay... or even the Palace of Versailles.
The sacred with the profane
Signed Frédéric Jung, the architectural project, which reconciles the ancient and the modern, focuses on different symbolic buildings in Grasse history: the former convent of the Dominicans built in the 14th century, the mansion Pontevès in the 18th, the flag of the former perfumery Hugues-elder entry and building Pelissier.
Playful and multi-sensory, route, organized into seven levels, beginning with ancient Egypt, where fumigations and religious rites are closely associated, while with the ancient Greece, the cult of the body enter the fragrance in the secular world. Vases in ointments, brûle-parfums, bottles, cosmetics... pallets all objects related to the perfume and makeup rhythm the discovery to the visitor, from antiquity to our days, through the middle ages and its medicinal plants. The Crusades and the discovery of new continents enrich the palette of odours with new spices and herbs. Techniques are evolving with the release of the distillation and then, thanks to the progress of chemistry, in the 19th century with the industrial organic synthesis.
Grasse is at the heart of these technological revolutions. Gantiers-perfumers, which made the celebrity of the Eastern capital of Provence, destroyed with the crisis of the leather trade, but the city of perfumes becomes the French industrial heart of the production of materials for perfumery first. Photos and videos allow more curious to follow these mutations.
Exceptional pieces
Terraces built in greenhouses and gardens finally present some emblematic plant of Grasse terroir, the rose of may in the composition of Chanel No. 5, the jasmine, or even the tuberous.
Exceptional items such as the voyage of the Queen Marie-Antoinette necessary or even the original bottles made by René Lalique perfumer François Coty, among objects offered to visitors. In eight months, they were 65,000 hanging out in different rooms, while the initial goal of 70,000 visitors a year.
The PSA, which will host an exhibition devoted to the design year also cultivates relationships with professionals in the sector. The Armip (Association for the radiation of the PSA), chaired by the nose Jean-Claude Elena, unites them and contributes to the promotion of the Museum, its activities and to the enrichment of its collections.
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