Review of Le Parfum de Thérèse by aad de gids

I remember being immediately enamoured by this perfume when it 'stood' inmidst of 'the Malles'. of them I already had bought quite a few (around the year 2000). the most by Domique Ropion and then some and I remember for my straight twinbrother I bought the one with an overdose of Patchouli [Pour un Monsieur] and Cologne Indélébile. this perfume now is totally mysterious because I absolutely abhorr aquatic perfumes and loathe fruity notes (especially) Melon. but this is what I get from the beginning: Melon and Melon. I have 'studied' for the last hours (also driven by your review) what it was that attracted me to this perfume already in the perfumery when the first things you smelled were Melon and 'Aquatic'. I think it is the fact that these Notes are immediately and disturbingly drawn down to the Midsection Plum and Roses. and paradoxically the only fruit I find great in perfume is 'Plum'. (Jaipur Boucheron, Poison). but I do not so much smell actual Roses (my favorite flower) but more a 'rosiness'. (like in Rozy of Vero.Kern). and the perfume immediately places itself bombastically as a Classic Perfume. I have a feeling of an Aldehyde but those are 'molecules' which are always referenced when used. then perhaps 'Hesperidic' yet oranges, mandarines or whatever citrus I almost never smell (xcept the lemon and lemon blossom in Versaces 'Eros Pour Femme'). I think Roudnischkas genius lies in mingling several Notes thusly, that they form a synesthesia with each other so that you don't know where the one ends and the other begins, or that it never ends. I think the Melon has a kind of 'wilthedness', a Putrid, off-scent and perhaps civet (which I love) plays her role here, although not listed. so the initial impression of Melon and [fruit] becomes encompassed, oversatiated with Plum and the rosiness of Roses but it goes even further, they are drawn to the netherworlds of Leather, Vetiver and Cedar. How Vetiver can become a humid, putrid, soil like substance (which of course these roots are) Jean Laporte showed us in his early L 'Artisan Parfumeurs' Creations and then specially Routes du Vétiver... the Perfume De Thérese is a Classic Perfume from off the first sniff and its complexity and deceivingly simplicity plays her parts on us. you percieve chypre notes where none are listed. I get whiffs of Roses, even the Plum doesn't enfold itself completely (where one reviewer said that it almost was a three dimensional plum). so this perfume is divisive. your review is interesting because it shows the [mysticism] of the perfume. the story of (kept this perfume for his wife for thirty years) can be demystified (partly) by the fact that his perfume for years wasn't attractive for Maisons to bring it out. (comparable with Chanel who 'chose' No5 but meanwhile brought our myriads of other numbers from Ernest Beaux's list as well, already in the 1920s.) I think what attracted me in this perfume was her dirty character and mysterious sillage.