Grasse's company quarter

Places like Port Sunlight and Bourneville are well known to English people, while all Dutch people know about Phillips at Eindhoven and many French people about Michelin in Clermont Ferrand. But Grasse, uniquely in the Cote d'Azur, has its very own company quarter. I was introduced to the 'Bon Marché' area during a tour arranged by the Town Hall.

The initiator of the development in 1905 was one Dr Eugène Perrimond, who later became mayor of the town and who is commemorated in the name of the main street of the quarter, but Georges Chiris, of the eponymous perfume business, was a major participant.

The Chiris were among the most successful of the perfumier families who became millionaires as a result of Grasse’s industrial revolution (the introduction of steam distillation and later modern techniques from around 1860 onwards). The most important member of the family was Leon Chiris, who took over the business on his father Antoine's death in 1862. His premises occupied the site which is now the Courts of Justice. The only sign left of his factory is the large ‘Mosque’ hall next door, built in 1899 for the then-new technique of extraction by volatile solvents.

The 'Mosquée', av Pierre Sémard, next to the Palais de Justice

The Bon Marche quarter is to the east of the old Chiris factory site. On one of the streets, you can see this line of small houses built in 1906, crowned by a pediment identifying them as 'Groupe Chiris'.

Chiris terrace, av des Maisonettes, quartier Bon Marché

Low cost housing in France, broadly equivalent to today's HLMs (Habitation à Loyer Modéré), originated in a law of 1894 to allow the building of 'Habitations à Bon Marché' ('low cost housing') and the name has stuck to this corner of Grasse. The quarter was in walking distance of many Grasse factories, despite being virtually in the countryside, as the image below shows.

Postcard posted in 1928, showing the Bon Marché quarter, mostly surrounded by trees

Design

The houses of the quarter were carefully planned.

Two terraced single storey houses on av Docteur Perrimond

They face south, for light and good ventilation, and their designs vary from group to group – they’re not twentieth century ‘cookie-cutter’ homes.

Two=storey houses on av Docteur Perrimond

Doors, windows and roofs vary, while some are single storey ‘maisonettes’ and others have two floors. Each had a WC, and there was a collective ‘lavoir’ for washing clothes. The development centres upon an attractive square, now with a play area, and there are vegetable gardens on a steep area to the south.

The houses were sold to their occupants in 1963, and most are still attractively maintained. The quarter deserves to be better known, for its quality as well as its history.

Houses on av Bon Marché

Léon Chiris

Léon was a Grassois and a perfumier from birth. The family business had been in perfume since it was founded in 1768, and his mother was from another prominent Grassois family, the Isnards. He was a grand-nephew of Maximin Isnard, the great survivor of revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

Having built on his family’s foundations the largest business in Grasse, he became an important participant in national politics as an influential senator. Two of his daughters married two of the sons of the president of France from 1887, François Sadi Carnot. Carnot’s name is on streets all over France, although that is due more to his assassination in 1894 than to his achievements!

Léon’s legacy can be seen in other places in Grasse apart from the ‘Mosque’. His bust is a prominent feature of the bd Fragonard, near the municipal police station.

Monument to Léon Chiris, bd Fragonard

The conceit of the lady showing a child the bust of Léon is rather sweet. It endorses his reputation as benevolent, if paternalistic, employer.

But his most magnificent relic, named for his son, is not easy to see. The Chateau St Georges, whether seen from the main road to Magagnosc below or from the narrow ch de Saint Christophe above it, is mostly behind big hedges. But if you’re on nearby roads such as bd Alice de Rothschild or ch de St Jean, its tower will suddenly appear out of the trees, leading to quite a rewarding ‘what’s that?’ moment.

Chateau St Georges, aerial view, av Victoria

The building is a little west of the former Grand Hotel where Queen Victoria holidayed in 1891. During her stay, Victoria, who was no doubt not too familiar with workers' housing, visited Léon at Chateau St Georges. Known locally as 'Petit Versailles', the edifice is today a wedding and events venue and not easily accessible, although you can get a flavour of it at https://chateausaintgeorges-grasse.com/3d-visits.