Week-End A Deauville by Parfums de Nicolaï, 2009

This scent seems to exist under two names, which may be directed towards different markets. Week-end à Deauville makes sense, as it references the Norman coast in a very specific way. However, I have also seen it referenced in Parfums de Nikolaï PR as simply Week-end, which is much less descriptive. Anyway, it must be spring or early summer in Deauville: the initial effect is wonderfully green. A thin chilly scent of early spring blooms like narcissus and daffodils is accompanied by a fizzy burst of aldehydes. Then, herbal smells: coriander, marjoram, tarragon. A weird, brief note of green apple sort of flickers across the nose, disappears and then resurfaces. This is all accompanied by marine notes, which Im less crazy about. Trying to convey that briny tang, they come across too clean; they lack the hint of organic stank which is essential to the effect, the way fish sauce lends essential ostinato to Thai curry. These marine notes dont really smell like the sea, unless by sea we mean an enormous sudsy washtub. But I can accept them as a stylized form of representation. Theyre too strong here for my taste, but they do recede after a few minutes. When they do, youre left with a sense of something warm, dry and vegetallike what you might smell if you were lying outside in the hot grass, or rummaging in a dark closed hayloft on a hot August afternoon, when the hays been toasting in its own aromas. Theres an earthy dimension as well, like grain or animal feed. These smells hum along in the understory of the fragrance, not calling attention to themselves but giving the scent bottom. As time goes on the sharp green smells of the opening recede and the experience mellows out considerably. In the drydown phase, the scent reminds me a lot of Annick Goutals Eau de Sud. But Eau de Sud is much sharper and more straightforward, being basically a rosemary / cumin / citrus accord. With the delicate florals that open and the marine note that hangs around (for better or for worse) Week-End is a more ambitious proposition. March 17, 2013