Grasse

Grasse stands three hundred and fifty metres up, twenty minutes from Cannes, and it smells of something other than the sea. The town has been the cradle of French perfumery since the seventeenth century, when its tanners began scenting gloves. The perfume-related know-how of the Pays de Grasse — cultivating the plants, knowing the natural raw materials, composing the scent — was inscribed on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in 2018.

It shows in the landscape as much as in the houses: centifolia roses are picked in May, jasmine from late July to October, by hand and at first light. The dense medieval old town keeps its cathedral, which holds three Rubens canvases, and the international perfume museum tells the rest.