Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.
Today is Saturday, May 18, and we’re in final preparations for our trip to Normandy and Brittany, the one we were planning to take in 2020. This will likely be our last big all-family trip abroad for the foreseeable future. Since our youngest was 5 years old and able to pull his own rollaboard bag, we’ve taken our kids to Europe or another international destination almost annually, riding the coattails of my dear husband’s travel for work. Usually he flies to Europe, works for a week or more, then we have joined him using some of his millions of frequent flyer miles. It costs less take to take our family of five to Europe for a week than it would to take them to Disneyworld! (I know that because one of my sisters used to take her three kids every year to Disneyworld).
1789 map of the provinces of Brittany, Normandy, and others; image by Ty’s Commons.
Now that the kids have all finished college and launched into jobs (the youngest will start his on July 1), it will be more challenging to coordinate schedules. And now that I’ve retired, and my husband will likely follow in a year or two, we need to spend a bit less on travel, lol. But for 17 years, minus pandemic time, we’ve been able to share some favorite countries and discover new ones with our three children, which has been a privilege and a blessing. I hope we’ve shown them enough that they continue to explore Europe and other continents on their own.
Thanks to rickyrebarco, I no longer have to try to figure out how to get my hands and nose on Patricia de Nicolai’s limited release muguet scent. Thank you so much! Since we are bypassing Paris, it would have been challenging to find it even in France and even if it hadn’t sold out so quickly. With that itch scratched, I don’t have any particular fragrance in mind to bring home as a perfume souvenir, which is good because I truly have so, so many. I. packed most of them away to make room for the stuff we had to move out of the basement so our oldest could move into that as an apartment, and I plan to sort, organize and catalogue them this summer after we get back. I think my upcoming olfactory adventures this month will focus mostly on food and drink, which are excellent in both regions we will visit!
Have you planned any upcoming olfactory adventures of any kind? Do tell!
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
WOW OH! Your extremely lucky kids. Our parents said they’d show us Australia and we could take ourselves to see the world on our own dime later. They managed a couple of weeks OS most years though and left us with F&F. Australia was pretty amazing to explore and we often had the cousins join us for all or part.
Cataloguing the collection! That is going to be so much fun. I had a girlfriend come do mine a few years ago. It was so interesting. Finding forgotten treasures, realizing I’d bought things more than once, being able to cull a few. She made me a spreadsheet of them all too.
Enjoy your holiday, safe travels,
Portia xx
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Thank you! Australia and New Zealand are on my bucket list. Yes, I’m half anticipating, half dreading actually listing my fragrances, lol!
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We will be awaiting you in Sydney when you get here OH. make sure we have plenty of lead in time.
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GAH! I wrote a huge essay and WP ate it.
Basically it said.
Have fun, safe holidays. Take loads of photos and share them with us please.
Enjoy the cataloguing experience of perfume.
HUG
Portia xx
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Your trip sounds amazing! Is the Lostmarch perfumery in Brittany still in business? They had some nice fragrances. BTW, I sent you an email with your tracking info on the Muguet Nicolai scent. Mailed yesterday.
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Thank you! I don’t know about the perfumery, I’ll have to check!
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I bet you’ll still come home with something. Just keep an open mind and something will make its way into your bag. You’re lucky to have been able to avail of airmiles, especially with three small passengers. I am off for a week with my own family next week. If I should see anything I like I might indulge myself, though of course I don’t need any more.
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Have a wonderful time, and I hope you find a treasure!
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Hope you have/are having a wonderful trip! Sometimes it’s nice to focus on the vacation rather than the souvenirs, although as cassieflower said, you still might find something!
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We are having a great time! Spent two days visiting DDay sites with a guide, then went to the Memorial Day ceremony at the American Cemetery on our own. Very moving. Now we’re in Brittany.
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I hope you’re enjoying your “end-of-an-era” trip. I also hope that two of you will be able to keep traveling – just for two of you, while your kids would keep that tradition going with their own families.
It doesn’t look like we have any trips longer than a day-long this year, olfactory or otherwise, so I slightly relaxed my “no-buy” and are getting some samples. Probably it can be considered a perfume-related equivalent of staycation :).
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We just got back! It was wonderful. I’ll post some photos later this week. Did try some fragrances in CDG’s duty free, but didn’t buy any. I think your plan definitely counts as a staycation!
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