Why the French can’t smell the roses: masks bloom among the flowers in perfume capital

It’s harvest time in France’s perfume capital Grasse, but this year the seasonal workers won’t be smelling the roses

Wearing masks and working separate rows, the pickers gather the petals which are destined for Dior and Chanel perfumes

3-MIN READ3-MIN

A worker picks centifolia roses for Christian Dior at Domaine de Manon in Grasse, southern France. ‘Working with a mask and not smelling is pretty frustrating,’ says horticulturist Carole Biancalana. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP

Published: 6:15pm, 22 May 2020Updated: 6:15pm, 22 May 2020

May roses are blooming in Grasse, the birthplace of French perfumes, but out in the fields, some of those who pick them face a problem this year. “Working with a mask and not smelling,” the flowers, “is pretty frustrating,” says horticulturist Carole Biancalana.

Owner of the Domaine de Manon, which works with Dior, she nonetheless told her seasonal workers they must wear a mask owing to the risk of catching the coronavirus.

Biancalana can still tick off a list of adjectives to describe the “complex, multiple and varied” scent of the centifolia rose, a fragile variety that cannot even stand by itself in a vase. “It is somewhere between honey, spicy, fruity, lychee, it is a perfume all by itself,” she says.

After two months of confinement marked by resounding silence broken only by buzzing bees, the gathering of rose petals began over a week ago and continues depending on the weather, under extra sanitary precautions.

A bag of centifolia roses. To keep their freshness and fragrance, the flowers are plucked each day, usually in the morning. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP

“Normally, everyone grabs a smock, we help each other out and go down the rows facing each other, we chat and it’s nice,” Biancalana says. This year, each worker has a separate row, starting at 9am and stopping before 1pm when the sun gets too hot.