My visit to Grasse seemed to be in a perfect timing: not only is it the rose harvest season (which only lasts 3 weeks), but also that week was the week of Expo Rose – a rose show with rose experts and growers from around the world showcasing incredible hybrids of fragrant and colourful roses.


The English roses were particularly impressive, with hundreds of petals condensed and arranged in such a stylized way as to resemble flowers made out of rolled crepe paper or metallic Art Nuveau sculptures.

And of course there were many vendors outside selling anything from rose jewelry and accessories to rosewater, rose wine, rose petal jams, soaps and so on. A little word of warning though: not everything that tastes like flowers in Grasse is high quality. In fact, I was barely able to swallow two bites of a crepe filled with mimosa-flavoured confiture. It was horrible. And so were the flower-flavoured seeds at the end of the meal in the local Indian restaurant. Both tasted like platic (for reference: if you’ve ever tasted a fragrance oil accidentally, that was the effect). One must be careful and stick to the authentic rosewater and orange flower water when visiting this overtly perfumed town…



In this blog entry are just some photos of how the city centre looked like May 21 - 24. And the city’s businesses, shops, museums and restaurants all had rose petals decorate the tables or reception area. At the end of the day, the street grounds were dotted with rose petals too. Quite a sight!

Rose petals in a water-fountain. How very luxuriuous!




Terracotta coloured rose. Never seen a colour like this (but it's really difficult to transfer through the camera).

English Roses
Fake rose trees that decorate the little alleys, staricases and passages in Old Grasse (aka downtown/city centre).