Docked in the west wing of the Palais de Chaillot since 1943, the National Maritime Museum, which reopens on November 17 after five years of work, offers in its new configuration a sensitive experience of the ocean, which also includes the smell. Designed in symbiosis with the fluid lines of the new architecture signed by the Parisian agency h2o architects, in association with the Norwegians of Snøhetta, a perfume reproduces the air of the sea. It was composed by Nathalie Lorson, master perfumer at Firmenich, who was given an almost impossible mission: to recreate a sea scent that speaks to everyone.
Striving towards this universal realism took two years. “We hesitated for a long time between the seaside evocation – the smell of the beach – and the atmosphere of a boat sailing on the ocean. Ultimately, it was the smell of the open sea that was chosen: the waves, the salty air, the sea spray,” explains Mazen Nasri, founder and artistic director of the Magique studio who accompanied the creation from start to finish.
Rather accustomed to composing perfumes for the skin, Nathalie Lorson worked with the same exacting standards, combining natural ingredients and chemical bodies to support her evocation. “I used seaweed absolute from Brittany to recall the marine flora, with which I combined calone, a molecule with a vegetal, aniseed, slightly aqueous odor, and finally Ambrox Super, with more mineral tones,” she says. The museum wanted to involve its future visitors in the development of the olfactory signature by organizing workshops during which the perfumer’s avenues of work were tested.
Six devices integrated into the furniture
An ode to the strength of the ocean and the invigorating energy of the waves, the fragrance called Sillage de mer is diffused in the reception areas thanks to six devices integrated into the furniture. The technique chosen is that of micro-nebulization, which transforms the liquid perfume into a cloud of fine particles, ensuring a homogeneous flow of scented air throughout the space.
As soon as he enters the doors of the museum, the visitor is suddenly cut off from the outside world, totally immersed in the sea, a thousand leagues from dry land. To prolong the experience, the public can treat themselves in the museum’s bookstore to not a bottle to spray on their skin but a fragment of the sea to perfume their interior: a ceramic accompanied by perfume in a dropper bottle.