Normandie
Jean Patou (1935)

With Normandie, I learned that I absolutely love when an orange blossom accord and carnation accord come together; it's like tints and shades, it makes the hair on my neck stand on end. The styrax in the base reminds me of the aroma sycamore trees on hot days.There are so many well-read and well-studied reviewers who've paid homage to this beauty that I can't help but to feel an "imposter syndrome" when comparing notes to theirs. The history behind this fragrance and its launch to commemorate the SS Normandie have been discussed at length; salient cultural details have all been covered, and I've been reminded that I could stand to watch more films, novels and study more on the general zeitgeist of the 20s and 30s.

I will say this, though—this seems to be the high water mark of my perfume exploration. I am stunned at this Ma Collection version and how it all dovetails together. It could almost wash my cynicism away—almost. Normandie is nearly unassailable, a perfect artifact of bygone luxury to marvel.

[From 1984 Ma Collection mini]

Normandie edt is absolutely divine. I don't smell much fruit, so to me Normandie is a powdery, woody, spicy floral with a drydown of amber, leather, and some soap. Like all classic Patous the edt is very light and easy to wear, but I can imagine the perfume must have been a gorgeous Neutron Bomb of a scent. The comparisons to Vol de Nuit are apt (both are green Orientals) but Normandie is frankly better. This got me compliments at work ("Wow you smell good!") so Miss Normandie is quite the crowd pleaser. A man can easily wear Normandie as well. So cool, so glamorous.

Normandie is a fruity aldehydic-floral, which - because it has a rich leathery baseline - feels more mature than the fruity florals of today.

It was a gift to the first female passengers on the cruise liner Normandie.
For such a rich clientele, something deluxe was in order and that's what you get here; a classic sweet and spicy bouquet with a hint of aldehydes, underpinned by a dark baseline - redolent of deep leather armchairs in a wood panelled salon.

Even though the perfume is not very loud, when the first soirée was in full swing it would have most likely overpowered No5, Joy, and all the other de luxe perfumes of the time.

When it was launched - in Brittany - Normandie was the biggest, and most luxurious cruise liner in the world. Henri Alméras did it proud.

Normandie (which smelled identical in its original and Ma Collection versions) was one of my favourite Patou perfumes. Named after the ocean liner of the same name, and originally presented in a miniature metal ship, Normandie was a beautiful mixture of aldehyde and oriental notes: I can remember exactly what it smelled like, but I really don't know where to begin in trying to describe the actual notes. The aldehyde made the fragrance very elegant and rather formal. (As a rather amusing note, on my Mum, Normandie smelled exactly like Chinese five spice).

I was so disappointed when Normandie was discontinued along with the rest of Ma Collection circa 2003: I'm really hoping it is added to the new Collection Heritage - as long as it is not altered (as yet I have only tried Vacances, which remains the same as it orignally was, and Adieu Sagesse, which has been changed so much it is a new fragrance entirely) - I'm also particularly hoping that Divine Folie will also be added.

back in the days of yore, so many eccentric things happened when an imprtant perfume was launched: Mademoiselle Carven, a tiny, wee bird-like woman who spoke quietly, orchestrated that the entire city of paris should be rained upon with tiny vials of "Ma Griffe" when finally she was ready to unveil her first foray into scent, each with a small parachute attached to it made out of the signature green and white striped crepe de chine 100% silk lining she used in her famous suits: All clothes "Carven" were tailored for "petite women," as Mademoiselle Carven herself stood barely 5 feet tall. In 1972 when Patou S.A. launched 1000, an army of dapper looking young men in 18th Century livery costume stormed paris and its posh environs of Neuilly/Auteuil/Passy in horse drawn carriages to hand deliver the first batch of 100 30ml parfum flacons, all individually numbered by hand as they were through the late 80's, nestled in curry coloured velvet jewell boxes lined in satin, as gifts to the 100 most elegant women of paris. At the time, only 100 ounces of parfum could be produced yearly. Before it was available to actually buy, at any price, by anyone, anywhere, including in the Patou Salons, anyone who was of note in Paris high society was already wearing it. For the maiden voyage of the now legendary "Paquebot Normandie" of 1935, Jean Patou himself, in the last year of his life, commissioned a famous metal worker to create a miniature of the ship, which contained in its main smoke-stack a screw-off cap, under which was snugly held captive an emery-galss stoppered capsule containing 15ml of a perfume blended specifically by Henri Almeras in honour of this voyage: The interiors of the boat, which were spectacular on all fronts, were designed by the same team that did all of the patou interiors, bottles, and boxes, the legendary design duo Louis Sue & Andre Mare. As a gift of welcome, each lady present on the inaugural voyage from France to the Port of New York received one. These heavy, solid nickel bottles are so rare that originals have broken all records at auction: I have one, but it is in very bad shape, seems to have lived ironically underwater most of its life, and the inner glass vial is shattered. In the early 80's Normandie was re-blended by Jean Kerleo: It had only been bfriefly marketed after the initial cruise, then disappeared all together somewhere around the early sixties. Jean kerleo's version is a very polite symphony of warmth on an underpinning of pulsating, pearlized and incandescent green: Carnations, cinnamon, orange blossom, clove, the most suave jasmine accord, one hardly ever seen in these times, and a lilt of deep, peppery rose that wafts over the entire comp without making itself particularly known: Normandie, in its last, final incarnation, is the epitome of elegance and refinement as only the last living "Great" Perfumer could see it: Very "Patou" in spirit, it whispers in a noticeably subtle way of privilege and wealth, yet it is never, ever wan: In fact it is bold and borders on thrilling, very much in the way a transatlantic crossing on a floating palace of riches must have been in those last days before the horrors of war blew everything down, leaving behind a ravaged, broken society, untold death and carnage and crushed spirits. Normandie is a waspy scent. One imagines Norma Schearer in "The Women" smelling like this, (While the common-as-mud Joan Crawford reeks of Tabu, or Chanel No5, or something equally repulsive and in your face) It is soft, and delicate, and has impeccable manners. I would say of all the "Ma Collection" series, it would be the most likely candidate for a re-launch, though there is scant hope for this, as Proctor & Gamble, after having bought, murdered in cold blood, then sold Jean Patou, as a final gesture of humiliation, or to kick the last nail into its coffin, then sold it to a company with even lower standards if that can be imagined: The same firm that now owns Worth. I imagine very soon we will be left with a watered down, synthetic dime-store "Joy" that will end up in discount shops and bargain basements just the way "Je Reviens" did. If you can obtain a sealed bottle of Normandie, online or elsewhere, do it: It would be impossible to find this scent unattractive. It's just that suave: Perfectly inoffensive without being remotely boring or predictable: A soft, warm, comforting composition of riches forgotten from another time: A powdered woman, elegantly draped in bias cut pastel silk charmeuse, with a pure white sable or swansdown cloak, and satin covered jeweled salome slippers, sitting legs elegantly crossed, nonchalantly smoking from a long cigarette holder, dripping in diamonds, hair perfectly coiffed, eyes and lips impeccably painted, amidst the soaring Art Deco interior of the most elegantly fitted out transatlantic ocean liner the world had ever known, yet barely noticing any of it, because she is sipping daintily on some cocktail, and, having fallen prey to its haze, seems lost in the revery of her life: We only get to see that gentle, barely their smile on her dark rose bud lacquered lips, and her pearlized, smoky eyelids which are softly shut, and wonder: Just how splendid could life once have been for the Happy Few? That is Normandie, by Jean Patou.

I think VintageVogue has got a point here with 'between Vol de Nuit and Arpege'. It is to my perception more chypré style than Vol de Nuit already is. However, I found the opening very reminiscent of the original Tabac Blond and a very Caron-esque vibe overall (opoponax among other notes). The drydown loses me slightly with a very soapy quality, which is so predominant in many Ma Collection fragrances. Sillage is above average right into the heart. This is a nice and enjoyable EdT, but not the most unique Patou classic.