Grasse is the world capital of perfume and the third-largest town of the Alpes-Maritimes, in the Riviera hinterland, away from the coast. Built on the foothills of the Pre-Alps, it first prospered in the Middle Ages through leather working, before turning to perfumery from the sixteenth century. The great houses of Fragonard, Galimard and Molinard, the fields of centifolia rose and jasmine, and the perfumers' know-how listed as UNESCO intangible heritage have made the town's reputation.
The municipality is organised around a medieval old town clinging to the hillside, dense and steeply terraced, protected as a heritage zone (secteur sauvegardé), with its Notre-Dame-du-Puy cathedral and its lanes. Around this historic core stretches a vast municipality, taking in three large attached hamlets, Magagnosc to the north-east, Le Plan to the east and Plascassier to the south-east, and many residential hillside districts, from Saint-Jacques to Les Aspres by way of Saint-Antoine and Saint-Mathieu.
This extended geography shapes a contrasting property market. The historic centre, dense and made of old buildings, remains the most affordable area of the municipality. The residential districts to the south and the heights, prized for their villas, their terraced gardens and their views over the hinterland, concentrate the highest prices. More affordable than the nearby French Riviera coast, Grasse draws demand from first-time buyers and year-round residents, supported by the setting, the climate and the town's perfume identity.
