The first niche perfume I bought — the fragrance that plunged me head-first into perfumania — was Frédéric Malle Noir Epices.¹ Meeting Noir Epice’s creator, Michel Roudnitska, brought my love of fragrance full circle.

Besides the Art et Parfum lab and office, the other white stucco building at Sainte Blanche is Michel Roudnitska and his wife’s home. Just beyond the house is a T-shaped pool with a long stem where his father, Edmond, swam laps. Closer to the house meanders a shady Japanese-style garden Michel Roudnitska laid out, complete with a tiny bridge and statues of what look to my untrained eye like Thai goddesses. Up the hill a stone’s throw is the monument where Edmond and Thérèse Roudnitska’s ashes are interred.²

I kept a steady watch on the house while Olivier Maure, Art et Parfum’s director, went to fetch Roudnitska. I’ve never had the chance to meet in the flesh someone about whom I’ve read so much and whose fragrances I’ve worn…

Read the rest of this article »

For a perfume lover, Grasse is Mecca. For a lover of Rochas Femme and the classic Diors, Art et Parfum in nearby Cabris is its Kaaba. Earlier this week, Denyse from Grain de Musc and I spent an idyllic day at Sainte Blanche, home of Art et Parfum and the estate of the late Edmond Roudnitska and now his son, nose Michel Roudnitska.

Before visiting Cabris, my visions of the hills rising off the Côte d’Azur came from To Catch a Thief. I didn’t see roadsters with gloved Grace Kellys and neckerchief-sporting Cary Grants, but the Grassois hillside was almost Disney-perfect. The view from our hotel encompassed clipped olive trees, cypresses, and red tile roofs rolling down to the Mediterranean miles in the distance. Flirtatious cats lounged everywhere. At night, frogs sang.

Sainte Blanche occupies a stretch of steep hillside just off one of the small, winding roads leading from Cabris. After Denyse leapt from the car and said something into an intercom, and the gates to the estate slowly swung open. I eased the rented Twingo down a narrow driveway and around to the rear of one of the two large, white stucco houses. One of the houses is Art et Parfum’s offices and laboratories, and the other is Michel Roudnitska’s private residence…

Read the rest of this article »