Tubéreuse

I must have had this perfume in the late 1990s. with my (highly sceptical Capricorn) dad we went to Rotterdam and in the Niche Perfumery of Lianne Tio I browsed along the large collection (Lianne had also 'scored' Clive Christian in a separate Cupboard) and finally came up to 'Tubéreuse' of Annick Goutal. I must say the scent struck me as strange, almost like a Tuberose without Tuberose. but it was more complex than that. and I payed 350 guilders for it, a fact I proudly shared with my dad, waiting outside the shop. but nothing could shock my parents who were actually the Madonna & Sean Penn, Courtney Love & Kirk Cobaine and Nancy Spungen & Sid Vicious avant la lettre. (and had experienced WWII as teenagers ! ) so I cherished my acquisition and at home the perfume came forward, first, as a Tuberose chopped in pieces on a Cooks wooden plate. what I smelled was 'Green', 'grassy Green', also a mentholated aspect (long before Tubéreuse Criminelle of Serge Lutens) and nothing like Carnal Flower, Fracas, Estée Lauders Tubéreuse-Gardénia, well like also Poison & Giorgio. instead we had here the real Tuberose with stems, leaves, not wholly ripe Flowers and yet also the ripe and even whilted (now I see that it is simply 'wilted') parts. hence the Greenness and nevertheless also Floweriness sec. I grew accustomed to this very perfume. and than it happened my house was burgled and they stole 8 perfumes (from the perhaps 150 there were there) amongst which my in the mean time dearly beloved Tubéreuse from Annick Goutal. I came home from work and saw my front door lying flat in the hall. I am that person who immediately goes into dissociative mode, also calm, stepped in my house (over and on the door), was numbed and called the police. a comic aspect was when (after perhaps six weeks) the man of the Insurance came and spoke all through. then he suddenly asked: 'One thing I don't understand. You live here alone. And there are only Women's Perfumes stolen...'. at first I didn't understood the question but in a second I did and I answered dryley: 'Oh... well I am SUCH ONE'. he immediately understood. hadn't he done so I had a whole arsenal of other terms to explain it all. but I still mourn my perfume as it was quite unusual. a bit like an ancestor of Tubéreuse Criminelle and also Lutens's Vitriol d'Oeillet. it was in a class of its own. all the Prissy, Princess-ey, Bon Chic Bon Genre perfumes with Noeuds and Guirlandes were nor are not my THANG. thank you. no L'Eau D'Hadrien, no Sables, no Grand Amour. these I found all smelling too soft, well- behaved, and conventional. what a surprise then to have such exomorphous exemplar (exemplary) inmidst the collection. and the contrast between that Pieces of Garbage of Burglars and the Trophies they had stolen couldn't be any larger. well they shall have gotten money for it. if it was for coke, I have done that too. nevertheless the memory to this particular perfume stays a dear one, and it was stolen and this adds to its mystique.