Last week, I took a much-needed holiday, finally succeeded in getting on a plane and entering Europe, and had a most marvelous time. I’m still sorting through my notes and photos in anticipation of writing about it soon, but for now, I’d like to present a vignette of two duty free stores in Germany.

On the way to our destination, we had a layover in Frankfurt airport. One of the first fragrant experiences came not from perfume, but from gin.

The Botanist had an elaborate setup with two flasks of gin connected to cones, or “nosing trumpets,” from which you could release scent by pressing on a rubber pump. The Islay dry gin on the left is supposed to be light and floral, while the Hebridean strength gin is supposed to be rich and bold. The pie charts show the relative intensity of each characteristic—spicy, coriander, juniper, citrus, fruity, floral, etc.

To be frank, I could not really smell the difference. My nose was hit with a strong alcohol note that I recognized as “gin,” but I did not pick up on the subtleties. I was glad that sales associates mostly left people alone to browse.

The perfumes were mostly mainstream, although Guerlain had a nice section promoting their Aqua Allegorias. Atelier Cologne is alive and well. The Chanel section was well stocked with No. 5, No. 19 (EdP and EdT), and Cristalle (EdP and EdT), although these were on a bottom shelf.

On the way back, we transited through Munich airport. The duty free store there feels like a niche perfumery in its own right. This time I stopped by the Guerlain stand and tried Nerolia Vetiver, a lush and bright neroli that I believe would be wonderful for neroli lovers (of which I am not one…) Rosa Rossa was more my speed, a rose with light fruity notes of blackcurrant and lychee, boosted by musks. A good summer fragrance.

I was happy to spot a section of Lengling perfumes, as I had read about this Munich-based brand before and it’s not available in the United States to my knowledge. A sales associate saw me approaching and came over, so I asked if I could try them, thinking I could spray each of them myself… she said yes, but proceeded to spray one for me that she said smelled like 4711, a classic cologne. Then she asked me what types of scents I preferred, and when I said I wanted to try any and all of them, she started picking up each bottle, sniffing the nozzle, and putting it back. I tried to explain that I didn’t want to limit myself to one or two notes that I liked, because perfumes often smelled different from their descriptions, and she replied, “But it’s easier for me if you tell me what you like.”

I asked to smell Figolo because I thought the name implied it was fig. Wrong! It starts minty and becomes something else… based on the notes, it should be floral and leathery. I don’t really remember now. At some point another sales associate came over and asked if I had found a direction, because her intent was to redirect my attention to a nearby, much larger section for Diptyque! “Do you know this brand?”… Do I indeed! I told her I liked several from Diptyque, which she seemed happy to hear.

By this time my backpack was feeling heavy and it was time to find a place to sit down for lunch. So that was that, but there was a lot more I could have browsed.

Have you visited other airport duty free shops that feel like niche perfumeries? (I hear Paris’ CDG airport duty free is basically one giant perfume store…)