Ponte Etereo For Fumerie Parfumerie courtesy of Fumerie Parfumerie

I moved to Portland, Oregon from New York City in 2001 seeking a downsized urban lifestyle in a city that mercifully sometimes sleeps. Portland fit my medium-sized city needs and, much like New York City, came with an absurd number of nicknames: City of Roses, Rip City, Little Beirut, Stumptown, Bridgetown, and so on.

Wearing the first original creation from Portland’s perfume shop Fumerie Parfumerie, I feel confident declaring Ponte Etereo (Ethereal Bridge) the combined essences of the nicknames Stumptown and Bridgetown.

As I am a dedicated perfumista, Fumerie Parfumerie founder Tracy Tsefalas and I have bumped into each other several times over the years since the grand opening. The last time I visited I had three teenage boys enter right along with me while I stood there bemusedly holding the door open for them. There has been a clear post-Covid shift in Portland’s previously upturned nose at all things scented. By coincidence, Tracy and I just happen to live two blocks from each other in the eastside Montavilla neighborhood so I invited her into my backyard garden to chat about making the signature perfume for Fumerie.

For over a year, Tracy collaborated with wildly talented Italian perfumer Meo Fusciuni to bring forth the mysterious underbelly of classic bridge architecture standing tall in the Willamette River. She mentioned that Meo’s instant adoration for Portland and the special connection they forged over years of friendship were the strings that inspired him to compose a scent intended to build, “a long bridge across the world.”

 Tracy Tsefalas of Fumerie Parfumerie and Meo Fusciuni courtesy of Tracy

“My brief mainly focused on bitter cocoa, tobacco, and patchouli. Meo makes the most emotional perfumes and he didn’t hold back that vulnerability in the creation of Ponte Etereo for Fumerie Parfumerie”.-Tracy

We talked about how bridges are inherently romantic, not necessarily the heated passion of first love so much as the steady heartbeat of two people taking tender, trusting steps towards each other.

It takes a certain level of maturity to agree to meet someone in the middle, and there’s no better symbol for leaping in faith than a bridge spanning two sides in a tenuous tryst. What I sense in Ponte Etereo is Tracy’s longstanding affection for the complex, deep wood notes that held up classics of the 1970s entwining with Meo’s impeccable nose for modern expansion of ageless ideas. The venerable wet-woody of oakmoss and musk peeks out under the dry-woody of contemporary vetiver and patchouli, and the result is smoothly blended like the constantly churning waters around bridge pylons.

St. John’s Bridge Unsplash

Without casting any shade on roses, I’m grateful Tracy and Meo avoided the thuddingly obvious floral note presented to them by fate. While ‘Postcard Portlandia’ is afloat with rows of cultivated roses amid columns of hop vines for craft beers, the genuine spirit of the city is a drizzled forest cloudscape. In the Pacific Northwest, September showers eventually bring April flowers, and you can hear the collective sigh of relief when the rains begin again and we can tuck our half-forced sunny smiles back into our hoodies.

It’s not a heavy-hitter with the sillage, choosing instead to stay cozy like holding a hot cup of coffee in a paper cup. I’ve been testing Ponte Etereo For Fumerie Parfumerie through the midsummer heat and it makes me curious to learn how the warm wood base will cling to the cuffs of sweaters I’m about to rediscover in my closet.

Oregon license plate, photo credit RusticPlates.com

Ponte Etereo doesn’t make me want to slap a Keep Portland Weird sticker on my Subaru; it makes me proud of the elegant evergreen tree featured on our license plates. There’s no better fragrance for the upcoming autumn season if you want to smell the delightful transition of summer’s tree barks getting soaked dark with the silent patience of slow rains.

Weird wind

(A poem to accompany Ponte Etereo by Meo Fusciuni)

I should have listened to my heart I should have listened to your voice

I should have listened to the wind of those strange days.

I am still here, rooted deep in my silence

Without water and without nourishment for my soul

Listen to me, I have arrived in the unknown city and I am waiting for you here.

I should have listened to my heart I should have listened to your voice

I should have listened to the wind of those strange days.

The night brought two moons, to pray,

I wrote this song for us; I arrived in the strange city and I’m waiting for you here-Meo Fusciuni

Notes: Sichuan pepper, Cade Oil, Birch Tar, Dark Cacao, Rhubarb, Chamomile, Carrot Seed, Immortelle, Saffron, Jasmine, Cypress, Cypriol, Gurjum Balsam, Elemi, Incense, Cashmeran, Patchouli, Tobacco, Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Guaiac wood, Amber, Musk, Animal notes, Vetiver Java, and Suede

Disclosure I received a sample for Fumerie Parfumerie, opinions my own

Sam Berg, Guest Contributor and ÇaFleureBon reader

Ponte Etereo For Fumerie Parfumerie

Thanks to Tracy’s generosity we have a 5ml sample of Ponte Etereo for Fumerie Parfumerie for one registered reader in the USA. You must register for your entry to count. To be eligible, please leave a comment expressing what sparks your interest based on Sam’s review in the USA Only. Draw closes 8/21/2025

Ponte Etereo | Fumerie Parfumerie can be purchased (samples and bottle) on their website.

Please read Sam’s WE LOVE This Store: Fumerie Parfumerie here

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