Through the white windows of the workshop-boutique, there is a notebook of formulas, a composition organ, a gray stone angel, a geranium stretching toward the sun, and a few blotters that a pretty cursive handwriting has taken care to name. There, bottles in rows and pipettes in a bouquet; in a corner, a pale hydrangea head waits patiently for its round petals to dry next to the oblong boxes signed Alexandra Bachand. "Everything begins with a dream."

Praise of detail, slowness and imagination

La Grange du Parfumeur : like in a novel by Proust or Flaubert, the reminiscence of a bygone era, a snapshot on a sepia background, time seems suspended. "Yes, here, time stands still," confides Alexandra, with the disarming charm of a Madame Bovary. "In my workshop, there is a clock that does not indicate the time. Visitors are transported by the invisible beauty of perfume and its evocation." She is the one who welcomes them near the carousel horse at the entrance to the Jardin de Senteurs that she imagined to introduce her art by creating an exhibition "Perfumes in the open air". In August, there float the scents of wild blackberries, heady lilies and a romanticism that undoubtedly awakens the senses. Her husband Éric Delbaere, co-founder and also an artist, brings the olfactory experience to life for customers.

Here, the well-known business credo of "always further, always faster" has no place. "The composition of perfumes, which often takes me a year, is dressed in a poetic narrative that extends to the small details that I imagine with so much passion," she writes. Everything is handmade and carefully thought out. Right down to the packaging, the writing, the motley objects placed here and there that are not the result of chance but of thoughtful coherence. Everything contributes to rekindling an emotion, evoking a powerful memory, telling a story, and reflecting. "Drawing on the imagination is my way of approaching my job," she explains. "I want to rekindle in adults that spark that sparkles in children's eyes."

Alexandra doesn't look at what others do, she dives into a fabulous universe, her own, full of symbolism, to try to arouse wonder and offer her customers moments of happiness to bring back into their intimacy. A successful bet, since sales and visits have been constantly growing since the opening in 2015. Her most recent creation, Murmuration, has just won gold at the US Artisan Fragrance Awards 2021 .

The Way of Perfume: Everything is Possible

For the founder of the perfume house, anything is possible: it must be said that she comes from a family where everything certainly was. Restoring an old school to turn it into a hotel in a small town in the Eastern Townships, offering hot air balloon rides, installing water slides, why not? Launching into perfumery after a foray into fine arts is just one more greatness to seize.

It is the story of her childhood, which left a deep mark on her, which is at the heart of this crazy project. "Because perfume is this sweet embrace that weaves the most beautiful stories and emotionally connects us to what we feel is most precious." If the young owner has sincere affection for her clients today, it is because she lived side by side with the guests of her hotel in a natural intimacy. There was also this old wooden staircase, the furniture brought back from flea markets by her aunt, the green greenhouse and this famous flowerbed named "Jardin Bachand" that her grandparents, landscapers, had pompously inaugurated. "That's where I opened up to smells," remembers the artist. "It is in this period when we discover the power of our senses that we create affinities and anchor points, memories." A discovery in one of the condemned classrooms, the chemistry laboratory, would complete the freezing of his fascination with the aerial, floral world: this old box, a collection of butterflies, would later be the origin of his creations and his own garden, certified as an oasis for butterflies and monarchs.

Undertaking in the service of art and history

Inspired by the evocative power of scents that transcend time, Alexandra achieved a tour de force: she composed ten perfumes to tell the story of human nature in times of war in the international exhibition Fleurs d'Armes dedicated to the First World War which toured in Métis, Toronto, Vimy and Montreal from 2017 to 2020 and was seen by millions of visitors. History fascinates her so much that she created, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci for Orford Musique, the olfactory art installation Sfumato Invisible , a tribute to Mona Lisa. The short film that recounts her creative process earned her a place as a finalist at the Florence Film Awards . Capturing memories and crystallizing moments that belong to the past to express each time the new facet of a story moves her enormously and has allowed her to position her company.

Wielding the art of creative entrepreneurship

Sublimating emotions, diving into the olfactory memory of time and creating evocative places is a natural choice for someone who developed a range of products for other companies and who was also a graphic designer in her own communications agency in Montreal a few years earlier. “I worked for brands,” she says. “I know the reflexes and mechanisms of sales. What I choose today is an artisan, human and creative entrepreneurship.”

Perfumery is not a passing fad for the young mother who spent ten years traveling, discovering, and training alongside great French masters; she is also a graduate of the prestigious Perfumery Art School in the United Kingdom. "What helped me find my way in entrepreneurship was the B-School school of female entrepreneurship by Marie Forleo based in New York. This is what allowed me to find my line and ensure that I could maintain my authenticity.”

Beyond mastering a unique know-how, the alchemist juggles each stage of her company's development with agility and an assumed conscience. It is in her laboratory annexed to the Grange that she works the magic and creates perfumes in small exclusive batches. Each bottle is bottled and labeled by hand, an operation that is dear to her. "It is fundamental for me that the logistics are impeccable. Before opening to the public, I established the best possible practices for my inventory, the website, manufacturing and bottling. I did not want to be caught off guard once growth was launched". A fair bet for the young entrepreneur who has her wings spread.