Here are the perfume museum and boutiques that I visited in Paris last couple of months:
Le Grand Musée du Parfum (73 rue du Faubourg St Honoré)
This museum is a must-visit location in my opinion. It does not depend on any brand as Fragonard museum does, nor is it like the Barcelona museum which focused on perfume bottles. It's a museum centred around the perfumery itself.
There are various interactive instalments to demonstrate what a rose scent is composed of, how the headspace technology operates, etc. The highlight for me, is the instalment at the uppermost floor where one can smell 25 iconic perfume ingredients such as jasmine grandiflorum (the famous Grasse jasmine), oud, muscone, etc. and listen to the audial introduction at the same time.
Its souvenir shop is also worth a detour. Not only are there various brands such as Guerlain exclusive, Elie Saab exclusive, Olfactive Studio, A Lab on Fire, etc. but also a vast selection of perfume books, such as Jean Claude Ellena's The Diary of A Nose, or more specific books on perfumery materials and perfume history, or the new but very well made perfume magazine "Nez", etc.
When I visit Paris with my fellow perfumista friends, and when we have plenty of time to wander around in the city, we usually start from the
Serge Lutens boutique at Palais Royal (142 Galerie de Valois, at the east corridor of the garden) which is a place decorated with the peculiar, mysterious aesthetic of Lutens. Besides all the Lutens perfumes and beauty products, you can also buy photo albums featuring the striking visuals in his early years as professional photographer.
Around Palais Royal, there is a
Parfum Nicolaï boutique at 28 rue de Richelieu with the complete selection of her fragrances. I even got a bottle of Le Temps d'une Fête which was discontinued early on. There is also a
Le Parfum de Rosine boutique at Palais Royal, but I never got to visit it.
From Palais Royal, we often go to rue Saint Honoré and walk towards west, as there are many boutiques around the area. You can find
Le Labo boutique at 203 rue Saint Honoré to try their Paris city exclusive Vanille 44 and
Penhaligon's boutique at 209 rue Saint Honoré with their beautiful decorations and complete selection of their fragrances. You may want to check out
Colette at 213 rue Saint Honoré if you plan to visit Paris before 20 Dec 2017, as this lengendary fashion boutique is set to close at this date. The fragrances available at Colette usually have the kind of minimalist look, such as Comme des Garçons, Byredo, Heeley, Mizensir, etc. After crossing rue du Marché Saint Honoré and arriving at 330-332 rue Saint Honoré, you'll find a pop-up
Diptyque boutique that thoroughly renews the boutique's look every few months.
Continue west to 352 rue Saint Honoré, there's an
Ex Nihilo boutique where you can personalise your Ex Nihilo fragrances with their special machines, although I haven't yet tried myself. When you leave the Ex Nihilo and continue to head west, if you turn right at the first road, it will lead you to Place Vendôme. Just at the corner of rue Saint Honoré and Place Vendôme, at the number 356 rue Saint Honoré, there seems to be a new
Guerlain boutique. When I visited Paris during September 2017, it wasn't yet open, but it should be open now.
Cross the Place Vendôme to its north side, you can find
Maître Parfumeur et Gantier boutique at 5 rue des Capucines. The SA is very friendly and will help you through the complete selection of their fragrances. You can also buy a 10 ml travel spray for 30 € (if I'm not mistake). The SA will decant it directly from their tester bottle. There is also an
Amin Kader boutique close by at 1 rue de la Paix. It's mainly a store for clothing, but they also carry the
Santa Maria Novella line. I didn't visit them myself, but the opinions posted on French perfume forum about their SA seem mixed. Anyway, if you're determined to try SMN line, you can also find them in
Le Bon Marché department store at 24 rue de Sèvres at the left side of Seine.
If you decided not to cross the Place Vendôme and turn left on rue de Castiglione, you'll find immediately a boutique of
Annick Goutal with their complete selection. Continue south towards the Tuilerie garden, you'll first pass in front of
JAR boutique (14 rue de Castiglione) which is another must-visit in my opinion, because it's one of the only two location to try their fragrances (another one is Barney's New York if I'm not mistaken). The front of the boutique is very sombre and easily gets ignored. Once entered the boutique, a SA will guide you through their collection with a special procedure: he will let you smell a fragrance blind without any information on notes, etc, and will only reveal its name after you smell it, so that your opinion will not be swayed by the marketing. Once you have smelt all their fragrances (around 5 in total the last time I visited in February 2017), you can request to smell any of them as you like, or ask to try any of them on your skin. Their perfumes are arguably quite expensive, but the SA is very friendly and did not have any problem even if we didn't purchase anything. (By the way, I also asked to smell two fragrances that were discontinued: Bolt of Lightning and Ferme Tes Yeux, and the SA allowed me to. If you're really curious about them, maybe you can also mention them to the SA).
From JAR boutique and continue to head south, you'll find
Jovoy boutique at 4 rue de Castiglione, which is a perfume store specialised in niche brands with a vast selection. You can find luxury brandes such as Roja Dove and Amouage, also independent brands such as Tauer, Anatole Lebreton, etc. You can check out their website to have a complete list of the brands that they carry. The SA are friendly and will let you sniff peacefully as long as you like. You can also request samples to be decanted with purchase. And if you continue to rue de Rivoli and head back west for 100 meters, you'll find the tea house
Angelina to have a rest. I love their chestnut dessert Mont-blanc!
Head back to rue Saint Honoré and continue to west, you'll find
Costes Hotel at 239-241 rue Saint Honoré (in case you're confused by the seeming jump of the number on rue Saint Honoré, the door number on the odd number side is much smaller than the even number side across the street). Olivia Giacobetti's
IUNX Parfums has a small boutique here. If you like her work for L'Artisan Parfumeur and Diptyque, you may want to check out her own brand - IUNX, because she only has boutiques in Paris. By the way, the selection at Costes Hotel is not as complete as her stand-alone boutique at 13 rue de Tournon at the left side of Seine.
Continue west from Costes Hotel, the first road is rue Cambon. Turn right and walk north, you'll find the legendary address of
Chanel boutique at 31 rue Cambon with their Les Exclusifs range,
By Kilian boutique at 20 rue Cambon with their complete selection and perfumed jewels as well,
Parfum de Marly boutique at 26 rue Cambon and
Memo boutique at 24 rue Cambon with their beautiful decorations.
Still continue west to rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, there are many fashion stores along the road, such as
Hermès at 24 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré. Continue on this road until you pass in front of Elysée Palace, you'll soon find
Caron boutique at 90 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, where you can try all the famous and more obscure urn fragrances such as Tabac Blond, Narcisse Noir, Narcisse Blanc, Acaciosa, etc. The boutique itself is also very beautiful with golden decorations and crystals.
Continue west a bit more, and you'll find
Le Grand Musée du Parfum that I talked about at the beginning. And if you go take avenue Matignon to head south and then continue west on avenue des Champs Elysées, there is also the iconic address of
Guerlain at 68 avenue des Champs Elysées, although I didn't have had time to visit it myself.
