COVER N.112 - FRANCE

Postmark: Service des Oblitérations Philatéliques 24 - Boulazac 10-05-22
Posted on the 10th May; received on the 16th May 2022
__________________________________________________________________________________

The Pays de Grasse, in the Alpes Maritimes Department of France has had a centuries’ long association with a creation that far from being French in its inception has become one of the symbols that France is always remembered for: Le Parfum.

The need to hide one's not so pleasant odours or to exacerbate our attractiveness through sensitive strategies is as old as man itself, and France would became the centre of the perfume industry in Europe from the XVI century, after the reign of Henri II and Catharine de Médicis who employed a famous Italian parfumier ,René Bianchi, who, it is said, doubled as the queens poisoner (hmm.. is that why Dior chose to name one of his most famous perfumes “Poison”?).

Perfumes need scented molecules and before our current days of synthetic everything. most of those would come from all walks of nature: mineral, animal and vegetal, so it comes as no surprise that the cultivation of odorific plants in order to extract its precious essences would be fundamental to support the developing industry.

And it seems that nowhere has this aim taken more seriously than in the Grasse region, of France, the city itself being considered as the world's capital of perfume. The microclimate of the region is propitious for flower farming and as such the industry grew to amazing levels (no less than 5,000 tons of flowers were harvested yearly in the 40's of last century), before the already mentioned advent of synthetic molecules, which impacted quite dramatically in natural essences production and consequently in flower farming, that as of 2000 was registering no more than 30 yearly tons.

The stamps on the cover which I thank Roland for celebrate the fragrant flowers cultivated in he Grasse region, and were issued on 12JUN2020 as part of a four 0,97 € stamp souvenir sheet with beautiful illustrations of la tubéreuse (Agave amica); la violette (Viola odorata) - these being the stamps on my cover - la fleur de l'oranger ( Citrus × sinensis) and la rose de mai (Rosa × centifolia)