I spent most of today in Versailles, mostly outdoors, and smelling the Royal French countryside. The Petit Trianon and the stables/hamlet/little fake village that Mary Antoinette escaped to are so pastoralle and beautiful. I even loved the smell in the food-heating room. It smelled like old stones in ancient places like Jerusalem or the Bar Kochvah tunnels in Askelon.

The gardens were full with luscious lilacs and wisterias in bloom and the scent of moist leaves, dirt and cut grass was liberating and refreshing after being in the noisy city for a few days (Paris is so much noisier than Vancouver, not surprisingly!).

After Versailles we went back to Paris for a visit to the Musee d'Orsay, but on the way to the restaurant for dinner I noticed the tiny Annick Goutal shop and stepped in to sniff some unfamiliar scents - the new Musc Nomade, Un Matin d'Orage and Vetiver. I tried Un Matin d'Orage and found it to be too sharp for my taste. Magnolia, gardenia, citrus and the signature Annnick Goutal leafy-green sharpness prevent me from fully enjoying this scent.

As an aside: the l'Air de Rein is no longer available. I think they took it off the shelves because it changed overtime (that's how much I gathered from the sales person). They sold some perfume named "Reverence" in the gift shop that smelled horrible and definitely not authentic, and some Napoleon cologne that I didn't even bother trying.