Papier d'Arménie - Armenian Paper

Papier d'Arménie Tradition, Rose and Arménie

It was Auguste Ponsot, a French chemist, who discovered during a trip to Armenia that the inhabitants burned a resin to purify and perfume their homes. The resin was Siam benzoin Styrax tonkinensis (from Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.).

On his return to France, with the help of pharmacist Henri Rivier, he decided to develop a method of reproducing this practice without having to light charcoal or obtain a censer or benzoin resin. They invented a blotting paper impregnated with this resin that could be used easily anywhere, as all you needed were matches. The famous Papier d'Arménie was born. That was in 1885...
After several changes of presentation, the current paper, the green booklet, (which was called Papier d'Arménie Tripe) is now called Papier d'Arménie Tradition.

In 2006, to mark the Year of Armenia in France, a year of various celebrations (events, concerts, etc.) to mark 15 years of Armenian independence, the Paris-based company commissioned a famous perfumer, Francis Kurkdjian, a Frenchman of Armenian origin, to design a variant of its paper, with more oriental notes (myrrh, sage, lavender and cedarwood). The blue booklet "Année de l'Arménie" (Year of Armenia) was born.

Given the success of this version, Francis Kurkdjian was asked in 2009 to create a new booklet delicately scented with rose.. A fragrance composed of roses imported from Iran and Turkey that the designer describes as "An olfactory diptych carried by a gourmand and fruity rose like a jam of petals with mixed accents".

These scented papers can be used everywhere, to deodorise the kitchen after meals, or when you arrive in a hotel room. You can put a notebook in your wardrobe, between your clothes, in your drawers or in the car.

You can also slip a small leaf into a letter to perfume the paper...

Produced in France since 1885 by Le Papier d'Arménie in Montrouge, a district in the south of Paris.