Senior Fashion Editor Sarah Cristobal has been on assignment in France to discover what goes into creating the world's top fragrances. Read her previous blogs about traveling to perfumeries in Paris, and observations about the ooh la la of French culture.

The Axe experience didn't end with learning how their leather-inspired fragrance, Instinct, is made. We got to talk leather with the premier stretch leather couturier of France, Jean-Claude Jitrois at the Cafe de la Paix. He arrived in a black blazer of his own design with a matching razor tie and -- vis-à-vis his translator -- explained the following:

1) He enjoys the psychology of dressing and what it says about a person. As he said this, he looked around the room and we all attempted to suck in our stomachs and avert his fixed glare.

2) He's a fan of Lady Gaga: "I'm 66 and all of the artists I've met are all over the world. Lady Gaga will be between a Liza Minnelli and Elton John in ten years." Voila!

3) He likes chocolate. As models paraded around the table in his bondage-y gear, Jitrois served us a cake that had personally co-created with the staff of the Café de la Paix. It was based on a corner of a framed Georges Clairin painting of Sarah Bernhardt hanging in the lobby of the Grand Hotel. It was delicious – and he was interested to know how much we ate. We ended our Machiavellian encounter with a group photo in front of said painting.

The next morning, it was down to the south of France in Grasse to tour IFF's fields, where precious ingredients such as rose, iris, and honeysuckle are harvested. Usually cut in the morning, the croppers waited until mid afternoon to pluck the ripened Centifolia rose flowers from their stems so that we could observe the process.


The Centifolia is a hybrid rose that's been growing in the Grasse area for centuries. Though it is pink when cut in the morning, it will turn white by the evening and lose its scent. Therefore it must be harvested right away. There's a four hour turnaround from when it's cut to when it's discarded that transforms the roses into an absolute wax (also known as concrete). It takes around 350 kilos of the Centifolia to create one kilo of this substance, which is worth around 10,000 euro. The kilo will then be melted into a water bath and poured into alcohol; this process causes it to concentrate and evaporate so all that's left is a solvent used in fragrances. (Other substances, like irises, cost up to 25,000/kilo.)

Our French education didn't end at the company's organic farms/factory. Oh no, there was still learning to be had in Cannes, where we ended up for dinner and dancing. As any tabloid junkie will know, the film festival was in full motion. After a delectable meal at Baoli, we got our boogie on at a pop-up location of the Parisian club, VIP Room. The circus-themed bash include camels, ringleaders in long coats and top hats, and...wait for it...Paris Hilton!

The American pop tart danced near the DJ booth while jumbotron-sized images of her in the "that's hot" variety of poses were splayed in the background. While I would have preferred a Brangelina spotting, this was a surprisingly fitting end to a week of cultural curiosities.