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19
Bathing in Capuccino
There are many Fougères, but there is only one Fougére. This one. How could the shocking spelling mistake in the name of this Czech colognes from Alpa - this is the last part of my Bohemian series for the time being, but maybe I will buy more soon - come about? Since when has this fragrance existed at all, and did the accent sit upside down from the beginning? It seems inconceivable that in the interwar period, when French was still the most important language on the European continent and France the most important ally of Czechoslovakia, a French word like "Fougère" would have been misspelled in the name of a fragrance from Bohemia. Did the Communists invent the fragrance or maliciously turn the accent on the pre-existing fragrance? But: After all, we are talking about Czechoslovakia and not about the Cambodia of a Pol Pot, where it was probably shot who set an accent the right way around, or even who knew what "accent" meant. Fougères may have been regarded as bourgeois. But firstly, that would also apply to correctly written Fougères, and secondly, the Bolsheviks could also correctly write "bourgeois" and, as is to their advantage, never raged against the "Buorgenossie". And why has the accent never really been turned around in the 28 years since Václav Havel's presidency (and not Vaclav Hável's or even Vaćlav Havel's)?
These are - for language and word aesthetes in any case - decisive questions, which the wonderful commentary of Fittleworthen, who says everything else necessary about this fragrance, answers just as little as the ALPA homepage, which in its German language version (readers of my earlier comments may already appreciate the very special German cultivated or even ploughed there) only reports: "Kölnischwasser mit enticing sweet herbal-rooted moss undertone. Gives your skin lasting freshness and creates a festive feeling." Great! Perfect Soldier and Wolff! The page "pomadeshop", otherwise always a good supplementary source of information about Alpa fragrances, indicates that it is an old fragrance, but it also does not report exactly. The fact that, as we learn there, it is one of the favourite fragrances of the plant director does not help either.
The fragrance is presented to us in a 250 ml bottle (!), which is a middle thing between a spray paint can and an XXL egg grenade according to its size and, above all, its presentation. Certainly, after emptying and refilling, it can also be used as a Molotow cocktail. The label could be described as wonderfully retro/vintage if it were not for this malignant, toothache boring accent mistake.
Can a coffee that is sold as expresso, cappuccino, café or coffee taste good? Can a fragrance that is sold as Fougére or Cyphre smell good? This one smells very harsh, almost bitter, decidedly masculine and unlike many other beautiful Fougères I really have to think of mosses, ferns and forest. A slight impact in a kind of musty, no, that's too hard, let's say rather cellariness, prevents "Fougére" from really becoming a favourite fragrance for me (as for the works director), but it's beautiful already. Its decency in durability and sillage in connection with the giant bottle with a large pouring opening predestines it for me to use as Wasch-Eau-de-Cologne: if I don't come directly to the shower after great physical exertion (I tend to sweat a lot), I wash my face normally with water and soap and then again with a proper Schwupps "Fougére" pure (tilted into the hollow hand and rinsed face and neck with it properly). This refreshes and invigorates, and after 1 hour I rather don't smell anything anymore, whereas my wife finds the very close remaining base of this very special Bohemian artefact - despite the wrong accent - (at least in me!) very attractive. And when I am alone, I can still, so refreshed, withdraw to read a good book, for example "The Prince" by Nicólo Macchiaveli, uh, Niccólo Máchiavelli, or Niccòlo....
Mikael
