There is something very special about the house of Caron.
D brought this home for me last night as a late birthday gift from an antiques thrift store in amongst a bag of other treasures.,With a frisson of great excitement I noticed the familiar Caron cologne bottle immediately.
(Oh my god, which one is it going to be ?)
I have the eaux de cologne of several vintage Carons, including Narcisse Noir, Infini, Fleurs de Rocaille, Nuit De Noel. They are down to their last ten per cent of drops now and I just have an inhale of them every once in a while for the soft reminiscence of a nostalgic period in time I never lived through myself – perfumes that really are of another age, not remotely part of now (the phillistinic might even say hopelessly old fashioned and dated, with their unguenty, powdery, floral macerations and soft spices like the greying crinolines of old ballerinas – but the belle epoque, ballets russes velvet backdrops of these perfumes, is surely what makes their gone- forever, plaintive immersiveness so eternally appealing in the first place).
As I took out the unboxed flacon from the bag, I was frantically searching the label in the bedroom lamplight trying to identify which Caron this could be; the mighty Coup De Fouet/ Poivre, one of Georgia and I’s holy grails? ( if I were to have a dying Perfume Wish it might be for a giant, glass-studded bottle of the original Poivre extrait ). Tabac Blond ? Royal Bain de Champagne – a Caron I have yet to own … I would even have been quite happy with an eau de cologne variant of the dowagery , dusk pinks and clovey musks of Bellodgia, much as it doesn’t suit me – ( I still adore carnations even if you don’t’. In fact, just call me Eugenol.)
(I am sat at the secret lake writing this – thank god no tourists – the only person here)
: the vestiges of what turned out to be not an eau de cologne of a famous Caron fragrance on the back of my hand, but actually Caron ‘Eau De Cologne’ – a scent I had never heard of- and apparently neither has the Internet). And what a beautiful, delicately suggestive perfume this is.
The contents of the bottle were closed with a metal cork seal that I had to prise off with a can opener. Old colognes can often be bitter and sour; degradated lime oils and nerolis that have not quite managed – like so many of us – the tests of time.
But what was this, this morning ?
Such a beautiful, soothing orange blossom.
Not Neroli. They might come from the same tree, and neroli can ravish the senses with its own peculiar rasp, but orange blossom absolute, which this clearly is ( perhaps with some myrrh, subtle powdered balsamics and a whisker of musk) can be very tranquillizing to the senses.
Eau De Cologne – please give me more information about this one if you know it – is incredibly soothing; precisely what the original colognes were designed for : a momentary pause in the proceedings; a dab of the brow ; a reflective, soft inhalation.
I am absolutely delighted with it, and think it might now be the most beautiful orange blossom in my collection.
