What’s the best smelling city in the world?
Perfumer Isabelle Michaud shares memorable scents from her favourite travel destinations
Paris, France
“My first travel memory was when I was three years old in Paris. When I returned nearly three decades later to study perfumery, I had a flashback when I smelled the warm, roasted chestnuts the street vendors scoop into paper cones and the crêpes à la crème de marrons sold at crêpe stands. There is also the very specific scent of the French sidewalk café. It’s hard to define, but it’s a mix of coffee, bread, quiche and pastries, paired with the sound of clinking cutlery being set on the tables. In the spring, the cherry blossoms at Notre Dame Cathedral are just so beautiful — the smell is so light and fresh. I also love the traditional colognes sold in French pharmacies: large, inexpensive bottles of fragranced waters that you splash on yourself. The scent is very soothing to me, with a lot of aromatics and some orange flower.” Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“The Brazilian coast smells like freedom to me. I love the wind and the warmth in the air. Warm coastal scents are very different from cold coastal scents. With the former, the air is heavier and humid, and it seems to carry deeper, earthier smells. The smell of guava fruit sweetens the air of the outdoor markets, and around lunchtime, the aroma of a local dish called feijoada, wafts from kitchen windows. It’s a black bean stew with pork and onions served on rice or manioc flour, and it smells very welcoming, as if you’ve been invited into someone’s home. In my perfume, Ipanema Posto Nove, I added a touch of incense, a symbolic gesture in honour of Cristo Redentor, who watches over the city, because it’s an ingredient that’s linked to faith, and the scent reminds me of church.”
Bandiagara Escarpment, Mali
“I spent five months travelling in West Africa, through Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Burkina Faso, in the early ’90s. I have so many beautiful scent memories from my visit to Bandiagara cliffs in Mali that I tried to capture in my Pays Dogon fragrance. (The people who live there are called the Dogon and the area around Bandiagara is called Pays Dogon.) When I think back to that trip, I remember the arid landscape, the scent of shea butter, tanned leather, indigo tinctures used to dye clothes, smoke from the open fires, and a lot of beautiful, rich and raw woods like ebony and ceiba, which are used to make masks, sculptures and djembe drums.”