COCO CHANEL

Curious how she asks: "I'd like to learn to be like one these very attractive French women."

We're standing at the point of vert galant park on the ile de la cité on a Saturday afternoon; she's from Kentucky, got her MBA at New York University, and it's her first visit to Paris. In her sneakers, skin-tight jeans, light purple turtleneck and true blond wavy hair she could be Marylin Monroe at 21.

"Perfume," I say. "Perfume!" she sighs in excitement, as though it never occured to her, shivering in the cold, pulling her black sweater over her voluptuous breasts. I steer her across the pont neuf to the Samaritaine building that looks like a Hollywood set of a 1930s Lubitsch movie in the pale Parisian dusk.

When you enter, you are in a unique 1900s atmosphere under the exquisite Art Noveau stained glass roof of one of the largest fashion houses in Paris. On the ground floor popular perfume brands exhibit their stands, tiny salons individuelles, a stage ready for sampling the best perfumes of the world in golden light attended by pretty young things in seductive uniforms. If you don't know what perfume to carry that will make you a femme fatale, or just simply an attractive independent woman, you should sample most of them and learn the secrets of attraction, sensuality, and self confidence, and learn something about yourself.

 Certain perfumes are high boosts in instant self confidence, others have a longer memory of a moment of the sensual id. Others still, can drive you mad - you, or the man you meet. Wandering from boutique to boutique, greeted by exquisite young girls, inhaling perfumes - you're ready to swoon.

What the French really know how to make are wines and perfumes, I tell a buxon blond salesgirl at the Chanel stand of La Samaritaine. "C'est beaucoup dire, monsieur," she hushes. My ravishing companion from Kentucky giggles, asking on way to the next stand what she meant.

"Well," I say, "French women are very discreet, you know."

Coco Chanel was born August 19, 1883, an orphan, in Saumur. Very young she started a singing career and quickly was known for her song "Qui qu'a vu Coco ?" ("Who's seen Coco?" - the story of a stray dog). A young cavalry officer becomes her protector and takes her to Paris. She's trained by Lucienne Rabaté, a fashion designer of renown.

As Chanel she opens a hat store boulevard Malesherbes in 1909. She becomes the lover of Alfred "Boy" Capel, and opens a salon, on 21, rue Cambon in 1912. Stores in Deauville and Biarritz expand her elegant clientel who visited those summer spots. In 1921 she created her first perfume, and when she was asked how it should be called, she said: "I launch my collection on May 5, fifth month of the year" and hoping it would be augural of success, she called it "Chanel N°5".

Coco Chanel designed the unpretentious bottle, very much in tune with her times, dans l'air du temps. But she always believed that what is inside the bottle is more important than its container. When (the real) Marilyn Monroe was asked in 1958 what she took before going to sleep, she said: some drops of N° 5.

It became the first marketing slogan for Chanel. Ever since Chanel is casting stars like Nicole Kitman, Carole Bouquet, or Catherine Deneauve in their publicity campaigns, lending their marketing a high class note. Karl Lagerfeld took over after Coco Chanel's death, and as an homage to her, the new "nose" of Chanel, Jacques Polge, made COCO, using Coco Chanel's original design of a bottle, a classic.

Coco reproduced the baroque atmosphere of Coco's apartment on rue Cambon, with gilded mirrors and lacquered screens. The top notes of Coco open up with an assortment of exuberant fruity and floral scents: peach, tangerine, mimosa and orange blossom. The middle notes mellow into spicy fragrances such as clove and cascarilla associated with soft baroque flowers: rose and jasmine. The end note warmly closes the perfume with accords of vanilla, amber and sandalwood.

"Coco recreates within the Western world an aroma of amber and spice that had until then been exclusively oriental", said Jacques Polge. We visit the other stands and collect a pocket-full of smelling cards. Remember to write down on that piece of cardboard what scent you tested. Because an hour later you sit down on the terrace of the Samaritaine and watch the night fall over Paris and the Eiffel tower blinking in a sparkling wedding dress of lights. You have a coffee on the terrace and sink your nose on those small strips of perfumed paper.

Eau du Soir stands out, by Sisley, in the night breeze, a romantic flavor. Nina Rici's Amour d'amandier flows away quickly. Gautier dies faster than most. Christian Dior's hypnotic poison is seductive. Nina Ricci's Délice d'épices delicious. The coffee cups are empty.... We climb back down, heads in the clouds, for a last testing. Ricci's L'Air du Temps evokes a 'joie de vivre' and a carefree attitude. The doves on the bottle are a symbol of peace. L'Air du Temps belongs to the world-class perfumes. A timeless fragrance, it still seduces many women today and ranks among the best creations in women's perfumery next to N°5 by Chanel, Joy by Patou, Shalimar by Guerlain and Arpège by Lanvin.

"So, what's you perfume?" I ask my Kentucky companion. "Coco", she says, "Coco, that's it". And she really turned into one of these very attractive French women...