The Perfumer's Secret (36 page)
Read The Perfumer's Secret Online
Authors: Fiona McIntosh
I do feel saddened that the majority of perfumes made today are manufactured by relying on a chemical process rather than on flowers, especially the delicate
enfleurage
process, which you’ll read about in the novel. The ancient factories are now abandoned and the distilleries have disappeared but I can remember passing a crumbly old building with a tiny window on its cellar. I paused to sniff from the cellar that I knew had once been the storage for the raw perfume product and yes, indeed, one can still smell the potent, lingering fragrance of the essential oil. Amazing.
The three major perfume presences in Grasse today that particularly cater to international tourists are Fragonard, Galimard and Molinard. They offer free guided visits to their parfumeries so people can learn about the process of making perfume.
The result of my time in the laboratory with dozens of essential oils is ‘Fleurette’, the perfume I shall take on tour for this novel to share with readers. My intention was to retain in the perfume the integrity of the time I was writing about and to avoid anything notably modern while somehow trying to achieve a scent that could please a reader today.
A perfume almost identical to this is designed by Fleurette in the story and, true to her era, its most recognisable notes are May roses, violets and a touch of jasmine. I also added some of the exotics that were coming through to Grasse at that time, including tonka bean, ginger and green tea. The finished perfume is more gentle than the novel and the heroine it was inspired by, but hopefully you will find the tale just as intoxicating and uplifting, and find that it lingers long, like a well-chosen heart note.
‘A blockbuster of a book that you won’t want to put down.’
BRYCE COURTENAY
‘McIntosh’s narrative races across oceans and dances through ballrooms.’
SUN HERALD
‘A big, sprawling saga . . . sure to appeal to Bryce Courtenay fans.’
AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY
‘This poignant, romantic read also packs a surprising hit of action.’
INSTYLE
‘This book is fast-paced, beautifully haunting and filled with the excruciating pain of war.’
WEST AUSTRALIAN
‘A fine read . . . The moral ambiguity McIntosh builds into the novel gives it a depth that takes it beyond a sweeping wartime romantic thriller.’
SUNDAY HERALD SUN
‘McIntosh weaves a diverse cast together, and you gain an appreciation for her depth of research into World War II, Europe and Tasmania.’
BOOKS+PUBLISHING
‘A captivating saga of love, loss, and the triumph of the human spirit . . . Fiona McIntosh is an extraordinary storyteller.’
book’d out
‘A perfect blend of romance, action, mystery and intrigue by one of our best known and popular authors.’
NOOSA TODAY
‘Sure to appeal to lovers of period romantic dramas like
Downton Abbey
.’WOMAN’S DAY
‘Written with zest and a talent for description that draws you into the world of the novel and its characters.
THE AGE
‘Everything I want in a curl-up-on-the-sofa read . . .
The Tailor’s Girl
is an exquisite story that just bursts from the pages and leaps into your heart.’WRITE NOTE REVIEWS
‘Dreamily romantic and historically fascinating, this is McIntosh at her best.’
BRISBANE NEWS
‘A book for readers who enjoy a fairytale romance.’
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‘An epic story . . . sensitive, poetically powerful and as gentle as the breath from a fluttering of wings.’
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‘Spellbinding . . . [Stella is] reminiscent of our favourite literary heroines of the era, only feistier, sexier and more independent.’
CHERYL AKLE, BETTER READING
‘A heady novel of love, intrigue and taking chances, Fiona McIntosh’s
The Last Dance
is a book made for reading in bed all night long . . . Beautiful storytelling, emotional depth and complex characters captivated me from start to finish.’WRITE NOTE REVIEWS
‘[A] compelling and thoroughly enjoyable read.’
TOOWOOMBA CHRONICLE
Simon Godly, a Brit who lives in France, has an immense knowledge of the Great War. You can imagine with all of the detail I’ve been juggling in the research for
The Perfumer’s Secret
, much of it in another language, that clearly someone’s had my back. Simon cheerfully took on my story’s twists and turns and showed me how to bend its shape to fit an accurate pattern of France’s war. His delight in hunting down nuggets of information of what I considered pure genius to aid my tale cannot go without the highest salute. He enriched the story with the war minutiae that I so needed to make the involvement of an otherwise tiny town in the fabric of the Great War step out of history and I hope feel alive for the reader. The time we spent together in the northern battlefields of Arras remains memorable. Thank you, Simon.
Franck-Dominique Raineri and Monique Pawlowski from the Office de Tourisme de Grasse were filled with energy for this story and I’m grateful to Dominique Draghetti for her grand tour of the town. My thanks to the helpful folk at the Musée International de la Parfumerie, especially Marie-Séverine Pillon, who helped me to get a snapshot of life in this town dedicated to perfume. Thank you also to Philippe Massé, president of Prodarom, a perfume manufacturing syndicate based in Grasse, and his colleagues for their generosity of time.
My learning about how to make a fragrance began at the L’Occitane headquarters in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence while I was researching my novel
The French Promise
in 2013 but was fine tuned at the ancient perfume House of Galimard in Grasse during the northern summer of 2014, where I had my first attempt at perfume-making and produced a fragrance based on some of the main essential oils that were popular one hundred years earlier. I returned to Galimard in 2015, this time to meet perfumer, Caroline de Boutiny, who took that old-fashioned smelling recipe and helped me to improve it without losing the authenticity of the era. I called it Fleurette and am now quietly hooked on the pleasure (and tension) of mixing base, heart and top notes.
My thanks to Guy Bouchara, traditional perfumer in Grasse and fellow perfumer, Didier Gaglewski who is designing highly modern fragrances for men. Their discussions helped to inspire me.
The usual nod of gratitude to draft readers, Pip Klimentou and Sonya Caddy, as well as to all the fantastically enthusiastic gang at Penguin Random House Australia, especially my editors Ali Watts and Saskia Adams, as well as Rhian Davies, Lou Ryan, Sharlene Vinall and Clementine Edwards who keep me on track.
To the passionate booksellers of Australia and New Zealand – we can’t do it without you. Thank you!
A big
mwah!
to my readers – surely the most loyal and affectionate group any author could hope to gather around her. And a kiss to the beloved trio of Ian, Will and Jack at home who put up with my obsession for smell and taste that raged during the writing of this story.
A special hug to you, Will, for hunting down a pristine, tiny bottle of my favourite perfume from 1970, no longer produced, that in its single impeccable ounce released all the hidden recollections and images of my teenage years and reminded me of how vital our sense of smell can be to love and memory.
Fx
Being historically accurate is vital to my kind of novel and I do take every measure to ensure the correctness of my facts. There are moments, however, for the sake of story, that I bend the truth. For example, Fleurette and Aimery’s wedding. In France marriage is only legal if it is first achieved as a civil ceremony and newlyweds then present their certificate of marriage to a priest if they wish to observe a holy union at their church. I have used this double service requirement for the story’s advantage as you will have gathered if you’ve finished the book. It’s law, so that means no marriage certificate, no church wedding. While in truth Aimery would have had a tough time convincing a priest to marry them without that civil certificate I am hoping the tension of war, the power of their names, their friendship with the priest and the sheer embarrassment of cancelling what is essentially a ‘royal’ wedding in Grasse because of a technicality – not to mention a hefty donation to the cathedral’s restoration – helped the priest to overcome his resistance.
- Fleurette believes she is gifted as ‘the Nose’. Given the era, do you think this is a blessing or a curse for a woman?
- Fleurette describes her twin, Felix, as ‘her second self’. In what ways do we see their special connection affect the course of this novel?
- Sébastien asks: ‘Have you ever been in love, Fleurette? The sort of love that makes you feel irrational, irresponsible, irrepressible?’ In what ways does Fleurette act irrationally, irresponsibly and irrepressibly after meeting Sébastien?
- Fiona McIntosh writes beautiful love stories but swears she is not a writer of romance fiction. What do you think are the key differences?
- ‘I am at one with nature’s perfection – her beauty, her colours, her fragrances – and she has allowed me to glimpse it in a man.’ In what ways does Sébastien’s character typify her idea of perfection?
- Could this novel be described as a tragedy?
- Graciela admits that she feels sure she killed Aimery to release herself. Discuss.
- Fleurette manages to find it in her heart to forgive Aimery for the gravest of crimes. Can you?
- What do you think Fleurette means when she says ‘Women bear the sorrows of men’?
- Fleurette has a wonderful way of describing the fragrances she senses in her world, and the author had great fun concocting her own perfume for Fleurette as part of the research for this novel. If you had to formulate your own perfume, what ‘notes’ would it contain, and what would you call it?
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First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2015
Text copyright © Fiona McIntosh 2015
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Cover design by Nikki Townsend and Laura Thomas © Penguin Group (Australia)
Text design by Samantha Jayaweera © Penguin Group (Australia)
Cover photographs: Peony: Maximillian Stock Ltd/Getty Images; Roses: Olena Chernenko/Getty Images; Peony roses: Grant Faint/Getty Images; Town: PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images; Woman: CoffeeAnd Milk/Getty Images
Author photograph by Anne Stropin
ISBN: 9780857978547