Inside Grasse, where flowers for Chanel No. 5 have been grown for more than a century

0:04 In 15th century France, the medieval town of Grasse had a problem.

0:09 It reeked of dead animals from its booming leather trade.

0:12 Then came a clever idea to mask the stench.

0:16 A pair of gloves infused with the scent of local flowers.

0:20 It sparked a new industry.

0:22 Flowers were planted, techniques invented,

0:25 and what began as a cover-up grew into an art form,

0:28 establishing Grasse as the perfume capital of the world.

0:32 In 1921, when Coco Chanel wanted to create

0:35 a signature scent for her fashion house,

0:37 she went to this town in the south of France,

0:40 where fields once bloomed in abundance, but have faded over the decades.

0:44 Now, a revival is underway, and that's where our story begins tonight.

0:49 In Grasse, where flowers for the world's most famous perfume

0:53 have been grown and gathered for more than 100 years.

0:59 This is the rose centifolia, nicknamed the May rose because it blooms in spring.

1:05 Cultivated in row after pink row, it is a flower worthy of a serenade.

1:14 [music] Piano notes play over speakers.

1:16 Farmers say the vibrations help the buds bloom evenly.

1:19 [music] 12 of these roses go into a bottle of Chanel No.

1:26 5.

1:28 But the real star is this tiny white flower, jasmine.

1:32 It opens at night and is harvested as the sun comes up.

1:36 1,000 jasmine flowers go into a bottle of No.

1:39 5, giving it the floral scent

1:42 that has sat on grandmothers' dressers for generations.

1:46 We all have a a great nose.

1:48 I don't know about that.

1:49 At Chanel's annual jasmine harvest, we met Olivier Polge,

1:54 where he spends many of his working

1:55 days in the fields of Grasse sourcing flowers.

1:59 He is Chanel's master perfumer.

2:01 In the fragrance world, he's known simply as a nose.

2:05 What should I call you?

2:06 A perfumer?

2:07 A nose?

2:08 I prefer perfumer because people always think that my nose is very special.

2:15 Is it not?

2:16 And I don't smell things that you don't.

2:18 The work of perfumer is not to smell things that nobody smells,

2:22 but it is to identify the scents.

2:24 His job is to create new fragrances for Chanel

2:28 and make sure the classics smell as they always have.

2:31 It is part art, part science.

2:34 A sommelier of scent, Polge can detect thousands of smells with a sniff.

2:40 Do you have a favorite smell?

2:41 I love the scent of iris.

2:43 Mm.

2:44 Violet, powder, slightly woody.

2:47 I have to tell you, I was very self-conscious uh getting ready this morning,

2:51 putting my perfume on, thinking you were

2:53 going to smell it immediately and judge it.

2:55 Did you when we met?

2:56 No, but you you forgot that we are

2:59 uh surrounded with such strong scents of flowers.

3:03 This is over overpowering.

3:04 Phew, okay, good.

3:06 According to Chanel, five bottles of No.

3:08 5 are sold somewhere in the world every minute,

3:12 fitting since it's named after Coco Chanel's lucky number.

3:16 The iconic designer came to Grasse during its golden age

3:20 searching for the world's finest and most expensive perfume ingredients.

3:25 But over the decades,

3:26 farms began to shut down as the French Riviera became a luxe real estate

3:31 market and cheaper flowers were grown abroad in places such as India and Egypt.

3:37 Would Chanel No.

3:37 5 really smell that differently if you sourced the jasmine from elsewhere?

3:43 Yes, it would definitely have an impact.

3:45 Far from me the idea to say one is better than the other,

3:49 but you have to recognize their differences.

3:51 So, what exactly does it smell like?

3:54 Well, this is admittedly tough to convey on TV since we're doing the smelling.

3:59 This is just my problem Grasse.

4:03 Okay.

4:02 Oh, wow.

4:03 Grasse jasmine is grassy and fruity with a note of green tea,

4:09 delicate like the flower itself.

4:11 In the early 1900s, Grasse had about 12,000 acres of flower fields.

4:17 Today, only 124 acres remain.

4:21 And where nearly 2,000 tons of jasmine were once harvested each year,

4:26 now there are fewer than 15, grown mostly by one family.

4:31 Since the 1800s, for six generations, the Mul's have farmed this land.

4:37 What has it been like to watch the decline here in Grasse?

4:42 It's very sad.

4:44 It was a pity to see this evolution, but we couldn't do anything about it.

4:48 It's how it went.

4:49 So, we had to hang in there for many years.

4:52 Joseph Mul is the 87-year-old patriarch.

4:56 How often are you in the fields?

4:58 Every morning, 7:00 a.m.

5:00 Is he still the boss?

5:02 Yes.

5:04 He'll always be the boss.

5:06 Joseph's daughter, Colette, runs the office.

5:08 Her husband, Fabrice, oversees the fields.

5:12 Who's done the most picking here?

5:15 We all picked jasmine.

5:19 We had to help.

5:20 In my case, it was my grandparents.

5:24 And they would tell us, "If you wish to go and swim in the sea,

5:27 first you have to help us pick flowers." So, every morning No fun, pick first.

5:32 That's exactly what we did.

5:35 They say their jasmine has a distinct scent because like grapes used in wine,

5:40 it matters where it's grown.

5:43 Here in the hills where the Mediterranean meets

5:45 the southern Alps in a cool climate and rich soil.

5:51 You can't put burgundy in a bottle

5:53 of Bordeaux because people will tell you, "No,

5:56 that's not Bordeaux." For the fragrances we do here for Chanel,

6:00 it's exactly the same thing.

6:02 That's why in 1987, Chanel offered the Mul's

6:06 a deal to grow and sell flowers exclusively to them,

6:10 the first time a luxury brand partnered directly with Grasse farmers.

6:15 They say even the birds smell good here in Grasse.

6:19 Thank you very much.

6:21 [laughter] I think so.

6:21 It's the kind of partnership Grasse mayor

6:23 Jerome Viaud says helped revive the region.

6:27 A lot of people thought the perfume industry here was over.

6:30 Yes, a lot of people say it's the end of the perfume.

6:34 Why did you think you could make a difference?

6:37 Because we have the knowledge and we have

6:39 the weather and we have everything to get success.

6:44 So, we think it's possible and we are working on it every day.

6:48 Since taking office in 2014,

6:51 the mayor has filled the streets with thousands of pink umbrellas,

6:55 a tribute to the rose, and a picture-perfect backdrop for the 2

6:59 million tourists who visit Grasse each year.

7:03 He also helped designate Grasse a United Nations cultural heritage site,

7:08 recognizing its centuries-old perfume-making traditions.

7:12 And he blocked development on 170 acres of land

7:16 so that new flower fields can be cultivated.

7:19 A lot of mayors want the development to come to their town.

7:23 What was your fear with that development?

7:26 We want development, but we want to choose our development.

7:30 You want it to be specific to the perfume industry.

7:32 Definitely, yes.

7:33 Is there a renaissance in the perfume business underway right now?

7:37 I think so.

7:37 You saw it.

7:38 We did.

7:39 It's hard to miss.

7:41 Over the past decade, major luxury houses have invested in Grasse

7:46 by tying their brand to its reputation.

7:49 Lancôme built what looks like a Barbie dream house

7:52 on a farm where it grows roses for its fragrances.

7:56 Downtown, an abandoned perfumery became a workshop for Louis Vuitton.

8:02 And Christian Dior's former estate was restored,

8:05 preserving the gardens that inspired the designer's first scent.

8:09 It's nice to smell.

8:11 Everywhere I go, I put my nose.

8:13 You do?

8:14 I smell everything.

8:15 Honorine Blanc is a master nose

8:17 for one of the world's largest fragrance companies,

8:20 creating perfumes for brands such as Valentino and Gucci.

8:24 Yes, and smell it.

8:26 Patchouli.

8:27 People don't realize how much work there is behind creating a fragrance.

8:32 Sometimes I need 20,000 trial.

8:36 20,000?

8:37 Is how long it's taken you sometimes?

8:39 How do you know when it's right?

8:41 I would say there's two ways.

8:44 Your clients say, "Stop." This isn't practical.

8:47 Or it's instinct.

8:49 It's like music.

8:50 As part of the Grasse revival, her company,

8:53 DSM Firmenich, opened Villa Botanica five years ago,

8:58 a private retreat for its top perfumers to discover new smells,

9:02 the good It's very clean.

9:04 and the bad.

9:05 What can you do with this?

9:07 Smell like feet.

9:09 Feet.

9:10 There's an undiscovered world of scent out there still?

9:13 I believe so.

9:14 I think there are plenty of new odors to discover,

9:16 plenty of new plants to discover.

9:18 For a perfumer, it's it's heaven.

9:21 Does Grasse still hold the same significance

9:24 that it did to the perfume industry?

9:26 Yes, and I think even more than ever.

9:29 You know why?

9:30 Because we're going back to authenticity.

9:33 Well, what does that mean in when you're talking about perfume authenticity?

9:36 For me, when I come to Grasse,

9:39 it's a place where I can slow down and smell the value of an ingredient because,

9:44 you know, everything is speed, speed, speed, speed.

9:47 Today, fine fragrance is a more than $20 billion a year industry,

9:51 largely built on synthetics bottled in a lab.

9:55 Blanc says man-made scents are essential to modern perfumery.

9:59 You create perfection by balancing note

10:03 that are unpleasant with note that are pleasant.

10:06 If your apple is too perfect, you say, "Oh my god, it's not organic.

10:10 It's not natural." So,

10:12 the imperfection and this off note are very important for your fragrance.

10:17 So, it's kind of like baking.

10:18 You have to put a little bit of salt in the cake mix.

10:22 Yes.

10:22 Chanel also uses synthetic scents created in a lab.

10:26 We can't tell you exactly what's in a bottle of number five.

10:29 Olivier Polge told us the secret formula is kept in a safe in Paris.

10:35 I've heard that Chanel No.

10:37 5 has more than 80 separate scents.

10:40 Yes.

10:41 How many of those roughly are from Grasse?

10:44 The most important are from Grasse.

10:47 Which brings us back to the jasmine.

10:51 Starting at dawn when the jasmine flowers are at their most fragrant,

10:55 each one is picked by hand, too delicate for machines.

11:01 The harvest ends before the midday heat can damage the petals,

11:05 which are kept covered in wet cloth to stay cool.

11:09 Workers line up to weigh what they've picked.

11:12 4,000 jasmine flowers equal just 1 lb.

11:16 The blooms are then rushed to an on-site factory where

11:19 their fragrance is extracted using a 150-year-old technique developed in Grasse.

11:26 You have to work really fast.

11:27 Yes.

11:27 Because what happens [snorts] when they get brown?

11:29 The smell changes?

11:31 Yes.

11:31 It smells a bad fruit, like a ripe fruit.

11:35 Crate after crate of jasmine is layered

11:37 into this vat and steeped overnight like tea.

11:42 Then the flowers are removed.

11:45 They leave behind withered petals and a liquid that cools into a thick wax.

11:51 It took 35 million jasmine flowers to get this 22-lb tub.

11:57 The wax is turned back into a liquid Oh, wow.

11:59 So strong.

12:01 and filtered again into the most concentrated form of jasmine.

12:05 So, this will be sent up to our factory near Paris

12:10 and a few drops will go in each bottle of No.

12:13 5.

12:14 Does the jasmine today smell like the jasmine originally used in No.

12:18 5?

12:19 I think so.

12:20 I think that this is why we are very

12:23 careful in maintaining the way we harvest the jasmine,

12:27 the way we extract the jasmine, and we do it exactly as it was at the beginning.