NEW FRAGRANCE REVIEW Monsillage Vol 870 YUL-CDG Fragrant Flight Plan + Leap Of Faith Draw

There is a time-honored tradition of going to where the art is, to be discovered or to learn the business. Actors go to Hollywood or New York, country music singers go to Nashville, and perfumers go to Paris or Grasse. No matter the perfumer once you ask them to tell you their story it seems at some point a trip to France is part of the foundation. Many of these stories involve leaps of faith including one way tickets from their home. For the first time we have a perfume which actually tries to embody that flight to fragrance.

Monsillage is the Montreal-based perfumery of perfumer Isabelle Michaud. This house is one of my most pleasant discoveries of 2011. One of our loyal readers, Claudia Kroyer, sent me samples of the first four fragrances by Mme Michaud and Aviation Club was my favorite of those first four. After that review published Mme Michaud asked me if I would like to try her newest perfume Vol 870 YUL-CDG. As with her first four fragrances Mme Michaud supplies a bit of background to set the stage for her fragrance:

“I was shedding away almost everything: a good career, a warm nest, and a few habits. I had but a one-way ticket Montreal-Paris, a dream, and the rest of my life. Oddly enough, I wasn’t sad nor scared, had no regrets, and wasn’t doubting at all my decision to go. I was wholeheartedly embracing this rare opportunity to meet up with destiny and reach my true potential. I wasn’t about to miss the boat!”

The name of this fragrance Vol 870 YUL-CDG is that one-way ticket in fragrance form. The name translated is Flight 870 Montreal (YUL) to Paris (CDG). Mme Michaud attempted to create that trip from the winter woods of Montreal to the Old World sophistication of Paris. That means the balsamic beginning transitions through an airborne floral heart to a resinous musky landing.

I think one of my favorite top notes in all of perfumery is clary sage and Mme Michaud opens up Vol 870 YUL-CDG with that note and it has a slight woodsmoke quality along with its herbal nature. She surrounds it with a forest consisting of fir, cedar, and cypress. Together they create an accord which captures a cold afternoon in the northern woods with the smoke from a fireplace hanging low. It is a gorgeous beginning. Mme Michaud then flings us airborne on a mix of two amazing floral notes; ylang-ylang and osmanthus. The leathery apricot quality of osmanthus and the spicy sweetness of ylang-ylang propel the wearer into the stratosphere. The osmanthus Mme Michaud uses is very deep and displays all of the complexity that makes osmanthus a great component when used well. Finally Mme Michaud sees the runway lights of CDG and lands her fragrance on terra firma in the guise of amber, incense, and musk. This is a well-worn group of basenotes but it feels right to express the old world perfume traditions of Paris. It isn’t surprising or modern but it is very well-balanced and matches the intensity which has come before.

Notre Dame in Montreal (l.) and Paris (r.)

Vol 870 YUL-CDG has average longevity and above average sillage.

Like so many of my favorite perfumers Mme Michaud took her leap, or flight, of faith to Paris and returned with the informed inspiration to make outstanding perfume. With Vol 870 YUL-CDG she allows us to raise our tray table, fasten our seat belts, and exhilaratingly join her in this fragrant flight of faith.

Disclosure: This review was based on a preview sample supplied by Monsillage.

Thanks to Isabelle Michaud I have a sample of Vol 870 YUL-CDG to giveaway to one lucky commenter. To be eligible share a time in your life when you’ve taken a leap of faith. Draw will close on December 3, 2011.

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilt perfume

Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


16 comments

  • Getting married and buying my first house same month. I am a commitment phobe. I would love to try Vol 870 YUL_CDG.
    Thank you Cafleurebon and also monsillage for the generous draw:)

  • Thank you Cafleurebon for posting about this line…i love the fragrances and i am happy to see a shout out to Monsillage and Isabelle Michaud. 🙂

  • Quitting a job with a crazy, abusive boss. Didn’t have much savings, didn’t have another job, didn’t have a plan, but it felt so good to not be controlled by fear anymore. Things worked out. Even if they hadn’t, it was the right thing to do.

  • Moving to San Francisco at age 20 and finally really striking out on my own.

    Joining the chorus I sing with without knowing how to read music or speak the language I sing in.

    Thanks for the draw!

  • Leap of faith? I will take one tomorrow. I took one last week. And I will take another one in 2-3 weeks. I can’t really say more about it and of course I don’t know the outcomes yet but I hope everything will be alright. All 3 of them have the potential to change my life completely.

    Am I right to think that leap of faith, being positive and full of hope should be part of the same sentence ?

    I love the idea behind the fragrance. Also the composition sounds great. A promising woody oriental.

  • Moving to another city to be with my boyfriend turned husband a few years back. Getting ready now to move to another country. Life is full of opportunities, you shouldn’t be afraid to take leaps of faith.

  • Moving from my birth country ( under comunist oppression in those days) to my present country ( without knowing the language ), alone at 24
    I would love to try Vol 870 YUL_CDG.

    thanks a lot for the inspiring post

  • In 1988 my company was relocating, and it threw everyone’s life in total disarray. My choice was follow my job to Paris, or marry the man I’d been dating and follow him to his new job posting in Bombay. I did the later. I know, i know, all my careerist friends scorned me and couldn’t believe I wasn’t going to take the job. It was an extremely big decision, and I was really in no hurry to marry, having escaped a rather bad marriage three years before. But I took a leap and followed my heart and have never regetted it. I just wish it didn’t make me sound so much like a June Cleaver!

  • 20 years ago left my secure well paid job with a large company and trained in horticulture. The best decision in my life (apart from getting married to my wonderful husband). Now make a living as a contented gardener.

  • Dating again after my husband passed away 7 years ago. It took more than a year to venture out in the dating world. I now have a wonderful relationship with a very nice man. Please enter me in draw…thanks.

  • Taking leaps of faith… I admire people who do this. I have friends who are afraid of change, and I’m afraid of many changes myself, so I guess that’s normal. But recently I took another job with lower pay but more opportunity, so I guess that counts!

  • tomatefarcie says:

    After my dad died I decided life was short so I moved to Paris and lived there for seven years.

  • The only experience of taking a leap of faith I’ve ever had was connected to my husband. I experienced it as my own voice in my head saying to me, “This is going to be worth all trouble — even if it didn’t work out.” I’ve never been prone to hearing voices, but this did not feel weird. It felt as if the deepest part of me regularly laying dormant woke up and reported her findings into my waking mind. I trusted. It was worth it all, all the trouble it entailed. Almost twelve years later I still think so.

  • I met my husband online in a yahoo chat room. We chatted for 6 months, then it moved to phone, and a year later he flew to san francisco and we met in person for the first time. It was as if we knew each other all our lives. He flew back and a few months later I found myself living with him in Ireland. We both moved back to US and we got married last May. Hard to believe the first time we met was 6 years ago. If I hadn’t been bored enough to log in a chat room, I wouldn’t have met my soulmate.