The Disney Mediterranean Cruise meets "PERFUME"

Monday, May 03, 2010
Villefranche-sur-Mer, Provence, France
As a late birthday present, Julien suggested that I go on this outing. It was described as going to a perfumery in Eze and having the opportunity to learn about perfume making, as well as the chance to compose your own perfume.   As Perfume is one of my favorite books of all time, I was ecstatic at the prospect.

Part of the present was that Julien would take care of the kids, and I would have some alone time. This particular harbor required that we "tender" e.g. take a ferry to the shore. I don't mind this, as it tends to lend itself to a more beautiful landscape. Once on the bus, it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the perfume factory. It SHOULD have taken about 30 minutes, but 10 minutes into the drive the driver got a call saying that the ONE person who was late had showed up. So, we had to go back for the ONE person. The traffic was nasty and the driver was none too happy.   OK, none of us were too happy.   When we had maneuvered our way back, the tour guide had to then go and find this person. So, finally some chick shows up on the bus with this sheepish "I'm sorry but aren't I cute" kind of smile. It makes one long for the days of tarring and feathering.   She was clearly of the "high maintenance, think too much of myself" clan.   But I digress.

When we got to the perfumery, it turned out not to be just any perfumery but Fragonard. If you haven't heard of them, check it out. Quite impressive. We spent about an hour learning about the craft of making a perfume.   After much hard work, I did end up crafting a fairly decent perfume, but for other people. Really. It smells great on other people. On me, it smells like grandma soap.    But the experience itself was fabulous.

We then toured the factory and got a chance to buy some real perfume in the shop. Afterward, we went down to the medieval town of Eze.   When we got there, it was pouring rain, and rather than seeing yet another castle (my ex husband was Scottish and I have seen enough castles thank you very much), I chose to spend my time having not one, not two but three coffees at a local cafe. I was nicely buzzed when I returned to the bus. Here I encountered the only tour guide from the shore excursions that I really liked. We had a lovely conversation about the cruise industry and organized tours in general. I got some valuable insight for next time around.   Then back to the boat.

Overall another experience I would recommend. The only drawback was high maintenance woman, who remained high maintenance for the rest of the excursion....AND appears to have worked for Disney.   (Disney...her name is Sarah....please fire her. Thank you. )

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