Molinard, Grasse

Grasse is a quaint little town and Molinard is amongst one of several other historical perfume manufacturers from this special area in France. You are greeted with lovely fragrances the moment you enter the visitors area. If you are driving, Molinard offers excellent free parking space, unlike some of the other well known names in the area. The works tour is short but interesting. It also doubles up as a sales pitch for a captive audience. Not surprisingly, visitors end up buying a bunch of stuff at the end of the tour, helped along by the several willing members of staff at the boutique. However, our experience with the last part suggests that one should be careful of what one is buying. The 'tour guide' will tell you what great value is presented by some large pacakged products such as EDTs. It's a different matter that the retail version does not represent the sample that you were given to try out! An expensive EDT we bought turned out to be nothing like the sample - both in its fragrance as well as its staying power! Emails to Molinard did not yield any response, not even an acknowledgement :-(. So be warned - check what you are buying at the works. You may well be paying a lot of money for a large aluminum bottle of mildly perfumed alcohol....oops!!