Early in our research for Meet Me in Monaco, we read fascinating accounts of many French couture and perfume houses who vied for Grace Kelly’s attention as she made preparations for her royal wedding to Monaco’s Prince Rainier. Of particular interest to us was that she met with female representatives of those businesses. Of course, every woman has her trademark fragrance and we wondered: what if an ambitious young parfumeur caught Grace’s attention? What impact might future princess have on that young woman’s life, and vice versa?
Sophie Duval, our fictional heroine in Meet Me in Monaco, is a perfumer; an expert in capturing the essence of memory and emotion through scent. Sophie runs a struggling artisan family-owned perfumery left to her by her beloved papa, and when she is chosen to create a special fragrance for Princess Grace’s wedding, her fortunes change, but not only in relation to her business. Yet how were we to fully understand the passion and skill required of someone like Sophie? We are novelists after all, not celebrated perfumers! Reading about perfume and scent wasn’t enough. We quickly discovered we needed to go to the source of our heroine’s inspiration in order to find our own.
We followed Princess Grace’s footsteps to the Cote d’Azur and to Monaco. The cliffs of Monaco, we discovered, are filled with gleaming homes painted in bright summer colors and dotted with palms. An exquisite sight to behold. Its streets are winding and lead to the Rocher, or the Rock, where Rainier’s pink palace sits.
Our research also took us to the beautiful flower fields and historic Provencal town of Grasse, world renowned for its perfumes. We traveled through the town’s narrow winding roads that crisscross a hilltop overlooking a valley, and lost ourselves in the cobbled pathways of the old town among the many beautiful perfume and soap boutiques that line its streets. To step inside the famous perfume houses of Molinard and Fragonard, whose history goes back centuries, brought goose bumps, a sense of place, and plenty of inspiration. We knew then, we must set Sophie’s fictional perfumery called, Duval, right in the city’s heart.
During a fascinating, in-depth tour of the factory, we learned about the intricacies of perfume-making, which offered insight and detail that went way beyond any book-based research. We got to view equipment, learn about production, and spend some time combing through the variety of scents that are most popular in the region. But the highlight of our tour was a wonderful perfume-making class, which involved sampling over a hundred different scents to make our own unique formula. The perfume-making process is, as it turns out, incredibly complex–an artform and a science. We learned how different layers of scent make up the so-called head, heart, and base notes of every fragrance; each level of scent evaporating on the skin at a different rate. This particular aspect of perfume-making wasn’t only a scientific fact, but also gave us the perfect way to structure our novel – the head, heart and base notes reflecting the phases of falling in love, both for Grace and Rainier, and for Sophie and James. The idea of emotions and scent mellowing over time lent the perfect tone to the book, and also allowed for some stunning page design for each new section header of the book. The art of perfume bottle design is almost as complex of the art of making the perfume itself!
For co-authors living on different continents, spending a week together on the Cote d’Azur was essential, inspiring, and – let’s be honest – enormous fun! We enjoyed the local foods of fried squash blossoms and pastis and plenty of delicious rose wine and seafood, as much as we enjoyed our research. We truly discovered the heart of our novel on our trip. We concluded our trip with a visit to the St. Nicholas Cathedral where Grace was married and which is also her final resting place. The visit proved incredibly emotional, and a fitting conclusion to our time in the Cote d’Azur. We were ready to settle into the narrative and depict a well-loved and talented woman, our minds infused with fragrant memories of Grace’s home.