Brunch at Odéon: A Fragrant Morning with Memo Paris
There are mornings in Zurich that feel like cinema, pale winter light gliding over the Limmat, the hush of the city before noon, and the quiet glamour of Café Odéon, where writers, revolutionaries, and artists once lingered over espresso. It was here, beneath the chandeliers and Art Déco mirrors, that fragrance met memory in the most poetic way.
With Clara Molloy
The occasion? An intimate brunch with Clara Molloy, the visionary co-founder of Memo Paris. She had come to Zurich to speak about Odéon, a perfume that feels less like a scent and more like a love letter.
And how fitting that we gathered at Odéon Café itself.
A Brand That Travels Through Scent
Founded in 2007 by Clara and her husband John Molloy, Memo Paris is built upon a singular idea: «The journey is the destination.» Each fragrance is tethered to a place, sometimes a city, sometimes a vast landscape, but always a location that carries emotional weight. Paris. Irish moors. African plains. Venetian palazzos.
Memo does not create perfumes; it creates destinations.
Clara spoke with luminous nostalgia about growing up in Paris, about standing above the rooftops and breathing in the city, warm stone, distant gardens, rain on zinc, the invisible sweetness of evenings stretching into night. For her, scent is inseparable from geography. A perfume is never abstract. It belongs somewhere.
Odéon: Paris, Reimagined
Launched in 2020, Odéon entered the Memo Paris collection as a radiant oriental composition, sensual and textured. The fragrance was created by master perfumer Aliénor Massenet, the nose behind Memo’s very first creation, Lalibela, as well as other iconic chapters of the house.
Odéon is Memo’s homage to Paris, not the postcard version, but the intimate, literary, Left Bank Paris. Think golden light spilling from theatre doors, lipstick traces on porcelain cups, the soft rustle of silk against café chairs.
In the Art Déco elegance of Café Odéon, Clara described how Odéon captures that feeling of sensual intellectualism. It is warm yet refined, modern yet steeped in memory. A fragrance that evokes whispered conversations and pages turning in dim light.
There was something almost cinematic about hearing her speak of Paris while seated in Zurich’s own historic Odéon. Two cities momentarily intertwined through scent.
The Art of Odéon
As if the fragrance itself were not already a portrait of Paris, Odéon arrives dressed in art. The bottle is adorned with a bespoke illustration by Jean Jullien, the celebrated French artist known for his poetic minimalism and unmistakable graphic language.
His line work feels effortless yet deeply expressive, capturing the spirit of the Left Bank in a way that is both playful and sophisticated. It is not merely packaging; it is a visual extension of the scent’s narrative. The illustration transforms the bottle into an object of desire, collectible, cultured, and unmistakably Parisian.
In true Memo fashion, fragrance becomes multidisciplinary: scent meets storytelling, meets art.
The Olfactory Pyramid
Top: A radiant touch of bergamot opens the fragrance with clarity and light, softened by a subtle fruity nuance and a whisper of spice.
Heart: At its center blooms a velvety rose, enriched with creamy sandalwood and the addictive warmth of tonka bean, sensual yet refined, romantic yet composed.
Base: Ambered woods and a delicate gourmand facet linger on the skin, creating depth, warmth, and that unmistakable Parisian afterglow.
A Morning of Memory and Connection
Beyond the fragrance itself, the brunch carried its own sweetness. Seeing colleagues again, familiar faces framed by coffee steam and laughter, felt like stepping into a shared chapter. The atmosphere was effortless, elegant, warm.
With my lovely colleagues, Niklaus Müller and Jaz Brunner
And then there was that moment: dipping into the world of Memo, inhaling Odéon, letting it settle onto skin as the scent unfolded slowly, intimately. Perfume has this rare ability to collapse time. Suddenly, we were not just in Zurich. We were on Parisian rooftops. In hidden theatres. In Clara’s memories.
With Marc-André Heller, CEO Memo Paris
The café’s polished wood, the clink of cutlery, the glow of chandeliers, everything felt heightened, as if scent had sharpened the edges of experience.
The Poetry of Place
What makes Memo Paris so compelling in today’s saturated fragrance landscape is precisely this emotional cartography. These perfumes are not trend-driven. They are narrative-driven. Rooted in longing. In belonging. In the idea that a place can live forever on the skin.
As we left Café Odéon, Zurich felt different, slightly more romantic, somehow infused with Parisian air. Perhaps that is the quiet power of fragrance: it allows cities to travel with us.
And that morning, between espresso cups and silk scarves, between memory and modernity, Odéon became more than a perfume. It became a story.
Memo Paris X Jean Jullien Odéon Eau de Parfum (75ml) for CHF 275
LoL, Sandra
Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht and Andrea Monica Hug for Memo Paris
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View from the Estée Lauder Companies headquarters in New York City.
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