I don't know what it was anymore. This fine pen-and-ink drawing of Paris - where it is most lively and elegant - on the packaging board: everything in delicate black and white except for the summery roof garden up there, in Faubourg, Saint Honoré 24, the flagship of Hermés? Or the description of the scents of this unusual fragrance. But suddenly I had become curious what the scent might be there, in this roof garden in faraway Paris, which gave the perfume its name: un Jardin sur le Toit. It is a magnificent old building in the heart of the city, with a roof garden that everyone would like to have.
In the middle of the urban asphalt jungle it smells and blossoms in bright colours, while the world outside this refuge fades into colourlessness. Idyllic, a refuge, a romantic oasis in the middle of the big city - these are the associations that I immediately notice. Fruit trees, apples, pears, stone figures, a staircase, an English lawn, roses, white blossoms, mallows, magnolias ... a timeless idyll, a place of peace in the daily hustle and bustle ...
Of course I started to research what this famous garden looks like in reality. It's easy to find. You can find him on YouTube, Hermés' magic garden on the roof terrace. And that's not so rare at all.
It's spring right after spraying. No, but it was early summer. Because it gets fruity right away. Pear, it occurs to me, but there it has already risen in a green sweetness. She comes along slightly grassy. If she was a girl, she'd probably have freckles and a straw hat. And smiles at you. She saunters along, long, slender legs, tanned, light shorts. It brings the scent of freshly cut grass with it. Her smile is contagious. She sits with you, carefree, carefree. Everything is suddenly so light - like the little clouds up there in the blue sky. You suddenly feel fresh, cheerful. White flowers - playful and harmonious - conjure up an idyll around you. You enjoy the feeling of silence on a holiday day in summer. The trees shield the heat. But the scent is everywhere: sweet, yes, but also fruity and fresh.
If this fine sweetness had a color, it'd be green. A bright green with white flower spots here and there.
The scent makes you feel good. No question about it. But he's not banal. Au contraire! He has his secrets. For a moment, I think I can catch a whiff of rhubarb. And he's gone. But there is something - an herb. That must be lemon verbena. Also the smell of apples hovers around me. But they're still a little immature.
The garden's a little overgrown. High grasses sway in the wind. Rare plants exude grassy scents that tell of summer in a roof garden in the big city. People like to listen to them. Because they're poetic stories. A bit of Oscar Wilde.
The fragrance has gradually become a bit more bitter and dry. The aroma of wild grasses and herbs blows around me. The sweetness is slowly becoming a memory. The freshness is now that of just cut grass. An enchanting scent that I will never forget, I think.
Last summer I was seduced by Hermés' spicy citric unisex fragrance Concentré de Pamplemousse rose, but next summer I will be accompanied by the scent of jardin sur le toit. Sweet, spicy, dry, fresh, green and in between always fruity. A fragrance that immediately evokes memories: summer, garden, holidays ...
I must think of Leo Tolstoy: "All happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" And reflect on whether all the gardens in which you were once happy, look alike in fragrance.
My garden is in the past. In fact, he was in Hamburg, on the outskirts of the city. Behind it, it was already rural. Gentle, black-and-white cows grazed there, which we fed with drop apples. Sometimes I wonder if it still exists, this garden of my childhood. But even if he still exists, he will remain closed to me forever. After the death of my grandmother, my parents sold the house and garden where I spent countless holidays
I sniff the back of my hand and think of my grandparents' garden. Do I recognize the scent? Yes, some notes are familiar to me: the freshly mown lawn, the fall apples, roses and berries. Everything somehow disordered, but inspiring.
The fragrance does not exhaust itself in fruit sweetness, fresh grass and white flowers. It is demanding - perhaps because it brings the garden idyll to a meta-level. I see the individual components happily whirling around in the playful battle for supremacy. This is not about concrete scents, but about emotions and impressions that briefly light up and immediately mix again in the round dance: cool, precious, fresh, green; fruits, dry sweetness, powdery, seductive, idiosyncratic. Close to nature and yet luxurious like queens playing shepherdesses in the park of Versailles. Pear, rosemary, apple, rose, grass, magnolia. Fruity, floral, juicy, but also light, airy. Still reasonably durable. High quality, but also somehow unfathomable and charmingly contradictory.
I sit under the apple tree and suddenly enlightenment comes to me: you can only enjoy this scent when you stop trying to fathom and analyse it. Just take him as he is, with open arms. Do you have to check or compare it all the time? I'm trying to re-experience him, unbiased. Now he seems trendy to me, dry, unisex, but nevertheless romantic in his own way. It has something longing and promising - like every beginning of summer.
If no one else gives you a Christmas present, you just have to give yourself something that brings joy. So I dared and ordered this not entirely cheap fragrance on the Internet, in a now or never action for Women's Day or something. Fortunately, the blind purchase was not a bad buy. I've sprayed the scent on several times at home and was happy about it. But I won't wear it properly until the beginning of summer. But then a lot, I already know that!
When I held the bottle in my hand for the first time, I already suspected that I would like the perfume: a dream of translucent green heavy crystal glass with rounded corners and edges. It's heavy at all - so not necessarily a case for the handbag to spray on (of course, I immediately indulged myself in the 100 ml edition...) - but it's still transparent, airy, clear and fresh, so it goes perfectly with the fragrance, which has the same qualities.
Durability and Sillage are not bad. The intensity was too low at first. In the meantime I know that the fragrance must not be too intense, because otherwise its transparency and lightness would no longer be noticeable.
Although the EdT is about 8 years old, I still find the fragrance refreshingly innovative and trendy. Anyone who enjoys sophisticated new fragrance creations that playfully combine natural magic with luxurious urban flair such as this Jardin sur le Toit will love this fragrance. Jean-Claude Ellena has really succeeded in doing something here that not only reflects the zeitgeist with its contradictions, but even condenses it. Is that poetry?
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Souk
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WildGardener
Itchynose
Lillibet
Hermesh
