Musée international de la perfumery - Grasse

Founded in 1989 and housed in several historic buildings including the Pontevès Hotel and the remains of a 14th-century Dominican monastery, the MIP is the world's first public museum entirely dedicated to perfumery.

The museum presents 5,000 years of perfume history : from the rites of ancient Egypt through classical perfumery to modern marketing, through more than 50,000 objects : including antique perfume bottles, utensils, industrial perfume machines, archaeological finds and advertising posters.

There are olfactory stations with hundreds of scents: flowers, woods, spices, citrus, etc. as well as interactive games and quizzes – especially for younger visitors and children from 7 years old. In the underground greenhouses and terrace gardens there are scented plants such as roses, jasmine, lavender and tuberose.

In 2018, the exceptional traditional perfumery skills of the Pays de Grasse were included in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage – a recognition of the centuries-old crafts surrounding the cultivation, distillation and composition of perfumes.

Willem Vandenameele