Thank you to Jen at Immortal Perfumes for an incredible week in Paris! We went to Osmotheque and got to smell classics from their archive, visited Versailles, vintage markets, Fragonard museum and workshop, plus several other perfume shops both contemporary and historic. So many smells, so many memorable moments. I’ll share more in the coming days but here are a few snapshots, including me with a giant bottle of Shalimar upstairs at Guerlain.

One of the best things I smelled in Paris was the scent of a church, Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. Built in the 12th century, it’s the second-oldest standing church in Paris. The smell was incense with nearly 900 years of patina — as if the stone had absorbed centuries of incense and candle smoke and prayers sent upwards, and the walls whispered their scent back into the air inside its arches, growing softer and deeper with each passing year.

One day, after spending the morning ambling through different gardens throughout the Palace of Versailles grounds, we stumbled upon the Perfumers’ Garden. It was rainy, fragrant, and peaceful (and, it turns out, not open to the public that day — we got kicked out later, but not before enjoying the plants and flowers).