SENTEURS ET ÉMOTIONS

About the Lecture: Inspired by the “Proust effect,” the well-documented phenomenon through which scent triggers vivid recollection, Camille Goutal reflects on the aromas that have marked the emotional landscape of her life while continuing the legacy of her mother, Annick Goutal. Her earliest memory is anchored in the scent of coffee and toasted bread on quiet Sunday mornings with her mother, an intimate domestic ritual that reveals how deeply smell can bind memory to place and time. For Goutal, fragrance forms a vocabulary of feeling. The tropical notes of Tiaré flower and monoi oil evoke happiness, while the scent of earthy accords reminds Camille of her Grandfather’s house in Aix-en-Provence after a summer storm. Coconut lotion suggests escape and travel, and herbladen meals recall convivial moments shared with friends. Other scents repel, particularly the odor of urban pollution. At home she favors warm woods and candlelight; in the kitchen, coconut and Thai spices. Above all, the scent she treasures most is the skin of her daughters, a reminder that smell, more than any other sense, anchors memory in the body.