Un Jardin Après la Mousson

Between Jean-Claude Ellena and the house of Hermès, it is a story of love and grandiose fragrant creations that keeps producing successes. The Parfums Jardins collection, initiated in 2004 with Un Jardin en Méditerranée, is likewise always met with just as much enthusiasm. In 2008, Un Jardin après la Mousson would continue this saga of scents through contrasting accords typical of the master perfumer, who decidedly has not finished surprising us!

Un Jardin après la mousson, or the dreamed gardens of Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermès

As he likes to say, Jean-Claude Ellena composed Un Jardin en Méditerranée in only… 10 minutes! Ten minutes during which he found himself in the garden of the artistic director of the house of Hermès, and during which his senses were swept away by sun-drenched scents that immediately inspired him for this first installment of what would become the Parfums Jardins collection.

The following year, it was Un Jardin sur le Nil that the perfumer had us discover, through green and crisp notes. Then in 2008, we would travel all the way to the magnificent Kerala region in India to discover the lush nature reborn after a rainstorm with Un Jardin après la Mousson.

With Un Jardin après la Mousson, Jean-Claude Ellena wished to offer us a fragrant journey that few of us know, so much is the monsoon period associated more with devastation than with anything positive for us Europeans. Moreover, despite the magnificent composition, entirely built on contrasts, offered by the “impressionist” perfumer, Un Jardin après la Mousson met with mixed success due to this unflattering image of the monsoon—a relative disappointment regarding the intended goal, which Jean-Claude Ellena explains as a misunderstanding of its story, far more than an error in the composition.

Are you sometimes disappointed? I was, for Un jardin après la mousson. The title was poorly chosen. I had not realized that many people did not know what the monsoon was, or thought it was a catastrophic event. It was the name, rather than the scent, that people disliked. Jean-Claude Ellena for Le Monde.

The surprising encounter between tangy and spicy notes for an extraordinary Jardin après la Mousson

Despite the incomprehension of some faced with this new journey proposed by Jean-Claude Ellena for this Jardin après la Mousson, many lovers of Hermès fragrances and of Jean-Claude Ellena’s perfumes once again applauded the striking style of this perfumer, who clearly delights in depicting for us powerful landscapes built on striking fragrant contrasts.

Thus Un Jardin après la Mousson first reveals itself through a sharp, tangy olfactory landscape built with notes of lime, orange, black pepper and coriander. The green note recalls, of course, the lush vegetation that blooms during the monsoon. Then a “rain” of melon notes falls into the heart of this Jardin après la Mousson. A rain that, once it has stopped, brings the humid warmth of burning, spicy notes of cardamom and ginger. Finally, longoza flower and green vetiver close this Kerala interlude with intense, mysterious vegetal depths.