Grasse
City Tours
Production : 
© 2017
Production : © 2017
The French Riviera is a beautiful area that is anything but undeveloped and empty. Its beauty has been attracting vacationers, second home owners and new arrivals for more than 100 years, resulting in an enormous amount of new construction. The changes are noticeable from year to year. Nevertheless, the beauty of nature, the climate and the radiant light are something special, from which, I think, no one can escape. And this is only the beginning, because there is so much to love here.
A few minutes drive from the Côte d'Azur is the city known as the city of perfumers. The climate here favors an enormous abundance of flowers. Lavender and roses thrive in abundance, so that in Grasse the perfume industry has its center here since the Middle Ages.
To reduce the city and its attractions to perfume, its production and derivatives, however, would be too short-sighted, even if this theme accompanies the visitor at every turn.
I visited the city four times. There is so much to discover here that has nothing to do with perfume, its production or the associated plants, although of course one always comes into contact with this topic. This includes a very active cultural and art scene, which I found at the Place de la Poissonnerie (the fish dealers' square) below the town hall. Paintings and sculptures of all shapes and sizes can be purchased there.
This question is purely a matter of taste, because there are hotels in the city, in the surrounding countryside there are guesthouses and there are ... my preference ... in and around Grasse campsites.
So everything is available what is necessary for a successful vacation, whether with wife - husband - friend - - or with the offspring together ... and the dog.
During my research, I ignored the dog as a companion, you may forgive me. No matter what your personal preferences are, besides the perfume theme with all its facets from shopping, factory tours, getting to know gardens where the flowers relevant to perfume production grow, contemporary artists can be met in your galleries around the Place de la Poisonnerie below the town hall, or you can go not far northwest to the Pays de Grasse, to see the last European bison, wild horses, or to work out down-hill by bike, through the treetops or underground in limestone caves whose beauty leaves no one cold.
t is very convenient in Grasse. The parking garage directly in the center at the Place de la Buanderie is actually ingenious and also the exit is generously laid out for French standards for a car with normal dimensions. However, in our experience, it is unfortunately not really safe. Tourist avalanches, which push themselves elsewhere by the cities, do not exist in Grasse, or much smaller. The contemplative and the many small stores in partly centuries-old houses give us the impression of a city in which time has moved on and old and highly modern have found together to a natural mixture.
Between Nice and Cannes is the resort town of Antibes, known for multi-million euro mega yachts and a maze-like old town.
The place is not listed on any tourist map, but it is not off the beaten tourist path and has some surprises hidden.
Favorable climate, lavender and roses in abundance make the city the world center of the perfume industry since the Middle Ages.
The «Fressgass» is worth a visit, castle and the modern green building behind it contain highly recommended contemporary art.
Picasso discovered the medieval village in 1935 and lived here with his last love, Jacqueline Roque, from 1961 until his death in 1973.
Born in Grasse, he grew up in the world of flowers and fragrances as the son and grandson of perfume plant manufacturers.
He began his creations in Salons en Provence later in Paris and is now a recognized and well-known "nose" in Grasse.
Here you can discover how the beauty of antiquity has influenced neoclassical, modern and contemporary art.
Two lovers of soil and fragrances open the doors of their eighteenth-century family mansion.
Founded in 1989, the International Perfumery Museum is located in Grasse, the cradle of luxury perfumery.
Since 1989 she has been creating her own exclusive collections - hats, women's wear and perfume creations, which she presents not only in Grasse.
Shortly before the World War 1, Eugène Fuchs, entrepreneur and succumbed to the magic of perfume, decided to create his own company.
Inaugurated on May 29, 2015 and is a library and source center aimed at the general public as well as schools and professionals.
The development of the city since the Middle Ages is inextricably intertwined with the emergence and development of fragrances.
Opened in 2015 in the historic center of Grasse, the House Duplanteur unfolds all the luxury of chocolate.
Not far from Grasse, the know-how of confectionery making is passed down from generation to generation.
