When I think of perfume, french perfume comes to mind. And I am now starting to understand why the French have a long tradition in the art of making perfumes (or at least I have my own hypothesis). According to Wikipedia, “Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces a pleasant scent.” And after living in France the last 5 months, I now understand the importance of having a pleasant scent. And here is why. When you meet another person in France (even often complete strangers who are friends of friends), hello and goodbye means giving a kiss (well, more like an air kiss) on both cheeks where you are in verrrry close proximity to the other person’s face & mouth. For non-frenchies, this can take a bit of getting used to (since we are used to having a personal space bubble that is now being popped!). Now, I am okay with it.

So, you say, what is my point? Well, when you are greeting everyone in such close proximity every day (unlike in alot of other cultures where a handshake at arms length is quite sufficient), I think the french bisous must’ve had something to do with the creation (and longstanding tradition) of perfume here in France. That way, when you go in for a hello or goodbye smooch, you get a whiff of whatever scent they are sporting (or maybe they are going nakie in which case it’s often their breath you smell). And you can also tell a lot about a person by their scent. While meeting for a meal with 25 of the French boy’s family and friends over the weekend, I smelt a whole range of people’s scents and perfumes. I found myself thinking “mmmmm, nice aftershave” or “Oooh she smells fruity… strawberry or raspberry?” or “hellooooo halitosis”. In whichever case, it is an interesting and uniquely french experience.

Luckily for me, the French boy bought me a scrumptious Flower by Kenzo bottle for noel. Ain’t he sweet! Long live the parfum, I say! (especially while I’m in France)