The French phrase À Travers Champs captures a uniquely poetic sensibility, implying not simply movement “across fields,” but the idea of wandering without haste, immersed in the sensual pleasures of the natural world. For the turn-of-the-century woman — elegant, introspective, and increasingly independent — such imagery spoke to a yearning for simplicity, health, and the countryside’s restorative calm. As cities grew denser and electric lights began to glitter through Parisian boulevards, Guerlain’s perfume offered a reminder of where beauty truly began: in the open air, among flowers and sunlight.
The year 1898 belonged to the late Belle Époque, an age defined by optimism, artistic refinement, and innovation. Fashion was in a state of graceful transition — corsets were beginning to loosen, skirts flowed into lighter fabrics, and the natural world became a major source of inspiration for designers and artists alike. The Art Nouveau movement, with its emphasis on organic lines, botanical motifs, and sensuality, influenced everything from architecture to advertising — and perfume followed suit. Perfumers sought to bottle the feeling of nature itself: not the formal gardens of earlier decades, but the wilder, freer essence of fields and flowers as one might encounter them in the countryside.
In scent, À Travers Champs was classified as a powdery floral amber fragrance, a composition meant to suggest both freshness and warmth — the daylight brightness of blooming meadows mellowing into the soft, powdery glow of sunset. Like other “Field Flowers” or “Meadow Blossom” scents of the 19th century, it likely drew on accords of violet, heliotrope, rose, mimosa, and iris, blended with faint herbal and ambered undertones to mimic the natural sweetness of crushed petals and warm air. These perfumes were often built around natural tinctures, essential oils, and infusions: orris butter for its velvety powderiness, violet leaf absolute for its green coolness, and heliotrope for its almond-like tenderness.
What made Guerlain’s À Travers Champs distinctive was the refinement of its balance — the way Aime Guerlain softened the rural simplicity of “field flowers” with his signature touch of warmth and sophistication. It was not the raw countryside of a farmer’s field, but rather an idealized landscape, filtered through Guerlain’s artful sensibility: flowers diffused through powder, kissed with amber and vanilla, and resting on a faintly mossy, resinous base that lent the scent an impression of longevity and quiet luxury.
When Jacques Guerlain later reformulated the perfume in 1921, he retained the essence of its pastoral charm but brought it into alignment with the era’s growing fascination with modernity and abstraction. By then, new synthetic aroma chemicals — such as ionones (recreating violet’s airy sweetness) and vanillin (enhancing warmth and creaminess) — allowed perfumers to extend and refine natural effects beyond what nature could yield alone. The reimagined À Travers Champs thus bridged two worlds: the rustic purity of 19th-century perfumery and the polished sensuality of the early 20th.
In the context of its time, À Travers Champs both reflected and transcended contemporary trends. Many houses offered their own “field flower” interpretations, but Guerlain’s stood apart for its emotional depth — its ability to translate a landscape into poetry. It captured not just the scent of flowers, but the feeling of standing among them: the hum of bees, the warmth of sunlit air, and the faint sweetness carried by a passing breeze. It was, in essence, a pastoral dream made perfume, an evocation of serenity and grace that resonated deeply with the women of its time — and remains emblematic of Guerlain’s gift for turning the fleeting beauty of nature into something eternal.
Fragrance Composition:
So what does it smell like? À Travers Champs is classified as a powdery floral amber fragrance for women based on flowers of the fields.
- Top notes: lily of the valley, violet, bergamot, petitgrain
- Middle notes: rose, orris, carnation, ylang ylang, sandalwood, clove, patchouli, benzoin
- Base notes: orris, vanilla, suede
Scent Profile:
À Travers Champs unfolds like a walk through the French countryside in late spring — a delicate breeze carrying the mingled scents of earth, sunlight, and wildflowers. From the first breath, the fragrance evokes the sensation of stepping “across the fields,” where blossoms sway gently and the air hums with quiet life. It is a powdery floral amber composition that balances freshness and warmth, nature and refinement — a perfume that feels both pastoral and exquisitely civilized, true to the grace of its Belle Époque origins.
The opening notes are radiant yet tender. Lily of the valley, with its crystalline purity, rises first — a dewy, bell-like floral note that recalls new beginnings and cool morning air. Its natural sweetness comes from molecules such as hydroxycitronellal and lilial, which impart a clean, watery greenness. In the 19th century, lily of the valley was rarely extracted naturally; instead, perfumers constructed it synthetically, allowing Guerlain to create an idealized muguet — more transparent and enduring than nature alone could provide. Intertwined with it, violet unfurls a soft, powdery sweetness with subtle green and woody undertones. True violet absolute from Parma lends a gentle earthiness, while the natural ionones within give the impression of crushed petals tinged with a whisper of powder. Together, the lily and violet form the heart of a meadow after dawn — delicate yet alive.
Into this floral light enters the citrus and leaf duet of bergamot and petitgrain. Bergamot from Calabria brings its nuanced complexity — bitter yet luminous, a touch of honeyed freshness balanced by faintly herbal undertones. Its natural compounds, including linalyl acetate and limonene, lend sparkle and dimension. Petitgrain, distilled from the leaves and twigs of the bitter orange tree, adds a greener, woodier profile — a crisp counterpoint that enhances the florals’ radiance. The combination is at once invigorating and serene, a gust of wind through open fields.
As the perfume deepens, the heart blooms into full floral richness. Rose, naturally lush and velvety, takes center stage, most likely the Bulgarian or centifolia variety, prized for its balance of sweetness and spice. Its main molecules — citronellol, geraniol, and phenylethyl alcohol — lend body, warmth, and that signature honeyed nuance. Orris root, one of perfumery’s most precious materials, introduces a refined powderiness reminiscent of vintage face powder and fine suede gloves. Its buttery, violet-like aroma comes from irones, molecules that give the scent its ethereal texture and depth.
Around these classic pillars, carnation and clove provide a subtle prickle of spice — eugenol-rich and slightly peppery — evoking sun-warmed petals brushed by summer air. Ylang-ylang, from the Comoros Islands, adds a creamy, exotic sensuality, its natural benzyl acetate and p-cresyl methyl ether molecules lending both brightness and narcotic depth. The sweetness of sandalwood, likely from Mysore, winds through the composition with a mellow, milky smoothness, its natural santalols imparting the sense of polished warmth that was a hallmark of Guerlain’s 19th-century style. A touch of patchouli grounds the floral opulence — earthy, resinous, and faintly smoky — while benzoin from Siam lends its golden, balsamic softness, binding the ingredients together like sunlight melting over the fields at dusk.
The base is intimate and sensual — a quiet lingering warmth that feels like the memory of a day spent outdoors. Orris returns, deepened by time, mingling with vanilla to create a soft, powdery sweetness that feels almost tactile. The vanilla, rich in vanillin, amplifies the florals’ creamy warmth and enhances the suede accord beneath. Suede itself is not true leather, but a smooth, supple interpretation — a blend of isobutyl quinoline, labdanum, and musk that evokes fine gloves worn by a lady at tea after an afternoon in the garden. This base gives the fragrance a hushed sensuality, transforming the airy floral bouquet into something enduring and human — skin-like, caressing, and timeless.
In À Travers Champs, Guerlain masterfully balanced the natural and the imagined. Each note — whether extracted from nature or born from the laboratory — serves to idealize the pastoral beauty of the French countryside, rendering it eternal. The synthetic elements do not obscure the natural; rather, they refine it, allowing the ephemeral to endure. The result is not merely the scent of flowers in a field, but the memory of them — sunlit, powdery, and golden — suspended forever in glass.
Theatre magazine - Volumes 43-44 - Page 62, 1926:
"...About stepping up to a perfume counter and trying to pronounce the French names, she does it so badly, and she won’t get any help from the clerk behind the counter, as a rule. Of course they're difficult, if you don't know French, and the simpler the name is sometimes the trickier it is to pronounce...Take, for instance, Guerlain's new perfume, 'A Travers Champs,' which looks comparatively innocent and yet takes quite an art to snap off the tongue comprehensively. But is that preventing its sale? No siree! It's being eaten alive!"
Bottles:
Fate of the Fragrance:
Discontinued in 1959.
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