Cueilleur d' Essence Aux Sources des Parfums du Monde by Dominique Roques

When  I picked up Cueilleur d' Essence

Aux Sources des Parfums du Monde by Dominique Roques released by Grasset I did it because being not just a journalist and book blogger, but also an Yves Rocher seller, I was curious to discover the world of fragrances, essences and what there is in the between. Yes, because a perfume means after all the magic combination of several essences, mixed together, chosen carefully for a satisfying result.

Well: this book was much much more than what I thought. 

First of all I discovered that the world of perfume is dreaming, relaxing, calm, agitated, colored, exotic; distant lands, smells, fragrances, good food, traditions, friendship, smiles, laughed, beauty passing through nature and the enchantment that the world present us everyday. When we buy a bottle of perfume we buy the world; we can see through the transparent liquid the work of gipsies, removing rose petals from a rose plantation; strong women in Andalouise; we see through it the smile of satisfied, tired people after a long work-day in the beauty and in the essences, under, most of the time, a beautiful warm sun, resting in company with a good launch; there is satisfaction and pride, there is the desire of giving the best, all the time and there is the certainty of a land, distant or close to us, that wants to offer the best.

The world of perfume speak many languages, shake a lot of hands, has many colors; it is a world that, in this case, is cleaned, is poetic, is immersed in the culture of the land; sometimes there are essences not just used internationally, but known internally because of cultural, religious purposes. An essence means sometimes legend, tradition; some examples? The sandal, the incense.

We will go in Andalouise, at first, where it is cultivated in summer the ciste, with its strong, hypnotical essence, this one is researched in particular for Chanel n.5. People of Andalouise are people who wants to make feast, staying all together for a big luncheon; they love their cultivation, they invest time and money for this purpose women, are intrigued by the final product and what it will become.

Then follow me, Dominique will spend some time and pages in Provence, famous for lavender and more recently for lavandine. There are distinctions: plantations of lavandine are particular of flat places; lavander can be found in hills, mountains, mainly. In the past there was a massive cultivation of lavender. Lavender: my favorite one! When I go to sleep I add some drops of eau de cologne in the cushion; the author has memory of his time spent in the big house of her granny in Provence during the summer-time, and the strong, fascinating fragrance of furnitures, rooms plenty of lavender. It is not simple to discover or obtain the best lavender and big maisions of perfumes are extremely exigent; they want the best and just the best of the flowers.

Same is for other essences. Dominque tells his adventure with the Rose of Bulgarie. Bulgarie was a land famous for the rose essence and in the past was the main productor; then they lost this prerogative; once Dominque visited the land, slowly slowly the situation returned to be as florid as it was in the past.

I was so surprised to discover that in Reggio Calabria, Italy, at the border with Sicily, there is a big plantation of bergamot and that the city can be proud of it. Gianfranco would want the bridge connecting Sicily with Calabria. Maybe it won't remain just a dream

Sri Lanka, tea apart, is famous because of cinnamon. The country is tribulated, because of wars, because of terrorist attacks and because of the Tsunami; so the land is in turmoil; but no one would say this, observing the beautiful plantation of cinnamon, teas everywhere and the calm that they present.

In Madagascar Dominque will explain you the powerful essence of vanille, one of the most used, and loved essences, revealing you also the birth of vanilla; you will discover that Madagascar produces the 80% of all the vanille that there is in commerce, including the one called "Bourbon", so yummu! You musn't never think for a second that this commerce hasn't known crisis, because it had for several reasons.

Indonesie is famous for its patchouli: Dominque is giving new energy at this important, crucial essence.

Dominque asks to himself if the state of things will remain this one considering the climate changes, desertifications, fires. I hope that the magic of essences won't never be over. It's too beauty!

You'll find history of countries, people, essences. You'll notice that you'll start to see the sun that Dominique is seeing, and that you can visualize all the beauty of this world thanks to his words in a book that will simply enchant, bewitch you forever, as an essence does!

Highly recommended.

I thank Grasset for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori