Vanilla ice lifts Christmas spirits

Givaudan is giving skaters the flavour of Christmas. Givaudan

Skaters at the Eiffel Tower ice rink high above the rooftops of Paris are taking in the traditional smells of Christmas, thanks to a fragrance from Givaudan.

The scent is a special creation from the Geneva-based company, which is renowned for its flavours and fragrances.

Called “Frosted Vanilla”, the scent wafts from the ice rink, perched 57 metres above the Champs de Mars, on the first floor of the tower.

“Vanilla is an omnipresent scent and fits very well with Christmas,” Givaudan spokesman Peter Wullschleger told swissinfo.

“In all Christmas cookies, you have vanilla and you also eat a lot of vanilla ice cream at Christmas… so vanilla belongs to the most typical Christmas smells,” he added.

One of the ideas behind the ice rink and its distinctive smell is to promote the Paris bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012. Another is to celebrate the 115th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower in 2005.

“In trend research, we permanently try to find out what kind of smells people like and based on this research, we created this vanilla,” said Wullschleger.

“It’s a very warm, Christmassy scent that people like on these cold days to get warm and have a good feeling.”

Comfort blanket

According to Givaudan, research into flavours and fragrances has found that people increasingly want to feel more comfortable.

“There are so many bad things around them, for example wars or economies that are not doing well. They want to get a feeling like they had in their youth. And one of the things you remember about your youth are the Christmas smells,” commented Wullschleger.

This is the first time that Givaudan has scented an ice rink, but the company has in the past provided fragrances for special events, for example during the spring collections by leading fashion houses.

And another novelty two years ago was when Givaudan created a fragrance for a concert during the renowned Lucerne Music Festival.

Big hit

The company says the Frosted Vanilla experience in Paris is proving to be a hit with visitors to the city landmark, which opened in 1889 for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution.

“So far people are amazed. I’ve had phone calls from all over the world asking me about it. People find it a really exciting idea,” Wullschleger told swissinfo.

“But the main purpose of this was research: to do something to get awareness that fragrances can help us feel better,” he added. “What the commercial outcome will be is very difficult to say.”

Some people might consider the whole thing to be nothing more than a publicity stunt. But as Wullschleger points out the company doesn’t usually advertise its products.

“You know a lot of things in life are gimmicks, but if it makes you feel good, it must be a good gimmick,” he said.

“We could have hundreds of stories like this but we do not aggressively promote things. We rather keep them internally before we really have products to commercialise. But this time we made an exception.”

“We felt that it was a nice story for Christmas,” he added.

swissinfo, Robert Brookes

Key facts

Eiffel Tower:

Contractor: Gustave Eiffel
Age: 114 years
Composition: 18,038 pieces, 2,500,000 rivets
Construction: 1887 to 1889
Total weight: 10,100 tons
Number of visitors up to the end of 2003: 210,485,130
Number of steps: 1,665

In brief

The ice rink on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower is open between 9.30am and 9pm every day till January 23.

All those visiting the landmark have free access to the rink.

Ice skates are available free of charge. Don’t take your own.

The 200-square-metre ice rink can take up to 80 skaters.