En Passant by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, 2000

What an interesting smell this is... As usual, the "lilac" note smells to me mostly like a mix of synthetic rose, synthetic lily, something cucumber-ish, and some sort of sweet red berry smell. It's got a round, watery openness that's hard to describe, but does a really good job smelling like a flower. If En Passant were just this, it would basically be a passable aquatic floral, but it's the supporting notes that take it into the "artfully weird" territory. It's got a huge gob of that extremely waxy, almost animalic acacia note made famous in Caron's classics, but really upfront and without Caron's trademark powdery flowers, so it makes for a crazy juxtaposition of dark, thick, and sticky with the airy, watery floral. It's also got tones that remind me of aging plastic, and a pinch of pink pepper that comes through towards the end. All in all, I think En Passant is a pretty brilliant perfume. It doesn't change much over the day, but it's such a deep, intriguing mix of smells that the lack of progression doesn't bother me. My only qualm is that it really does smell weird, which I think limits its everyday wearability, but I'm still giving a thumbs up for sheer artistry.

This is the first time I've shared a perfumer's vision of a fragrance as a representational image. En Passant really is a snapshot of lilacs next to a bakery. Imagine the scent of lilacs early in the morning so their fragrance is watery, delicate and slightly green. Supporting that is an aura of cool, dewy grass and green leaves. For me, this floral/green accord conjures a very specific time and place from my childhood in the upper midwest. This aspect of En Passant could stand on it's own as a fragrance. Now, having piled on all those accolades, I'm about to become something of a carping, philistine art critic: The bread is too bready. Yeah, I can't believe I just wrote that, either. I'm rolling my eyes, too... It strikes me that Olivia Giacobetti was striving for a sort of olfactory photorealism. That's great for recreating floral notes. But the other half of the equation, the bread/bakery accord, is another matter. Adhering to such a realistic aroma of bread -an accord alien to the rest of the fragrance- makes En Passant challenging to wear. As a practical matter, juxtaposing the delicate, ethereal, perfectly packaged floral accords with an opaque, yeasty boule of dough just doesn't work for me. Yes, it's wonderful art. It really is! But I believe the bread/bakery accord needs to be presented in a more idealized way so it integrates with the whole and becomes a wearable perfume.