Weekend a Fontainebleau

The story behind this scent is about the encounter between Diane de Poitiers and King Henry at Fontainebleau and I find the story mirrors atmosphere and feelings about the scent in a perfect match. Weekend à Fontainebleau seems to come from another era, when perfumes were made with taste and artistry, with an eye more towards art than money and I am happy to see that this feeling of art for art's sake is not dead with the Greeks. The scent opens and develops like a traditional chypre, with bergamot here enhanced by aldheydes, then a flowery heart where rose and an unlisted jasmine take the lead, and finally oakmoss and sandalwood (maybe not natural but perfectly rendered) complete the picture. If I had been told this was created by Guerlain or Coty of old, I would have believed without hesitation. This is an interesting creation and I look forward to trying the other scents of the line. This one is AN ABSOLUTE BEAUTY

My first thought...chypre. Classic, old school. It smells just as the notes listed above. Lots of rose and oakmoss with aldehydes making it sparkling and intense. It doesn't really evolve much on me. Very nice but Ive smelt so many similar to this. Moderate sillage and longevity.

This could easily have been made by Guerlain or some other classic house. It feels like a traditional Chypre, not dated but not quite modern either, the aldehydes do add something extra but it doesn't venture too far left of field. I had assumed that this would feel soapy because of the white florals and aldehydes but it actually becomes quite powdery on my skin, I'd go so far as to call it a powdery rose. It projected at a reasonable level for four hours before fading to a skin scent, lovely for what it is.

This is one of my dreams made life. So retro, I fancy I can hear a grandfather clock striking in the back of my mind as I inhale a patchouli/oakmoss combo, so sparkling, so afire with a life I had forgotten it could have, that I almost want to cry. Someone stole my dream in the night, and injected it with aldehydes (c14 gamma undecalactone/C12-Myrac?) potent enough for the Goblin King himself to enter in and wave the power of hoodoo voodoo over this intensely blue sky fragrance, There's a starman waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds. So he did. Summer of '72. Clear skies, sussuration of the trees, trembling like ecstatic bellydancers, the sound of the gentle waterfall stirring the water lilies, gentle splashing of the koi carp twisting and turning in the water... orange blossom, jasmine and roses in Harlow Town Park, and the tang of chlorine from the adjacent swimming pool drifting by, stirring the blossoms, picking up their notes and transforming them into more than mere memory, you can pick this up, put it in your pocket and roll it around in your hands like the shiny ten pence piece you carried with you as a child, for sweets and clacker toys which clatter against the bones of your hands and make you cry. Screaming with joy and terror-kicks combined - down the hillside on my red Raleigh RSW 14 bike, legs stretched out, bumping over stones and sun baked molehills, and screeching to a halt at the bottom, breathless and triumphant, gulping great lungfuls of that green, blossom laden, chlorine tinged air. I can hear the splashing of children in the big community paddling pool. I can taste geosmin, the muddy fingers of my brother sifting through his fishing net for signs of a prized newt at the Mill Pond. I can taste and see through time. If a perfume can stir such memories, it is worthy of a big old bottle. I have cleared my want list for the lockdown, this is all I need. I can live through a thousand lifetimes with one inhalation of this beautiful fragrance.

although it is not exactly my kind of perfume, I was impressed by its surprisingly chameleonic development: it starts as an aldehydic with the most sparkling and green parts of a rose that immediately rise to the nose fizzy like Coke, however, when the effervescence fades out, a very soft and slightly soapy heart opens up, calm, flowery and vaguely fruity, surrounded by notes of violets "en travesti", followed by woods (perhaps sandalwood?) and a non-dominant patchouli that gives it a vaguely chypre finale. This classical accords remind me of two fragrances: Tom Ford Black Violet and Goutal Mon Parfum Cherie par Camille, two referencies I love so much. Overall, although it's not a Chanel, I would recommend it to those who appreciate that kind os fragrance.