Le Sang des Pierres

Close-up of a person holding a white plaster mold with liquid inside, on a sandy surface.

A hand placing a small white stone into a carved-out section of a stone surface, surrounded by textured stone with small circular indentations.

A woman in black crouches down by a rectangular water fountain in an outdoor orchard, arranging white stone tiles on the face of the fountain. The fountain's central column is made of large carved white stone blocks, topped with a rustic, outdoor water spout and a tall, curved metal pipe. The orchard is filled with evenly spaced green trees and the sky is overcast.

A person pouring water from a white rectangular object into a white stone bowl outdoors, with a blurred natural background. A small bottle of perfume is also on the table.

Close-up of a carved stone wall with intricate patterns and a small purple flower at the bottom.

A close-up of decorative stone tiles with floral and geometric patterns, including a sunflower design and a stylized cartoon animal face.

Subject: The making of floral water
Installation: Limestone fountain-shower
Scent: PETRICHOR by Paul Guerlain
Year: 2024

"A drop, heavy and warm, bursts in the summer dust. Soon, a downpour strikes the parched ground and brings it back to life. And you — as you emerge from the torpor of a heatwave and fill your lungs with the damp air — can you smell the scent the earth releases in the rain?"

Alice Lebreton, Research Director at INRAE, Le Monde, 2022

LE SANG DES PIERRES lies at the crossroads of sculpture, functional design and olfactory experience. This limestone composition takes the form of a garden shower, a basin and a bed of carved stone — subtly sketching the outline of a fountain.

Deeply inspired by the mountains around Nice — their rocky slopes where water springs forth and everything begins anew — this piece, carved in Nice over the winter, is an allegory of nature’s breath and rebirth. In winter, the rocks absorb water, minerals, organic matter and molecules, only to release them in spring.

Our creations inhabit a place and are steeped in a season; we work with a perfumer to create a unique fragrance. Here, it all began with a word: petrichor — literally, “the blood of stones,” that distinctive scent of earth after rain.

This is the story of a gardener and his imagined, dreamed-of garden — carved in stone.

A man in a white t-shirt and dark cap standing next to a stone water well with a long wooden handle, in a field with trees, during the daytime.

A GARDENER’S END-OF-DAY RITUAL, TRANSFORMED INTO A LARGE-SCALE SCENT DIFFUSER

The gardener sets down his tools, sits on his stool, pulls off his gloves and plunges his hands into the water. Essential oils, leaves, soil, sweat, flowers... Everything mingles and settles, turning this moment into fragrance.

To recreate this ritual and bring an olfactory experience to life, we designed effervescent stones made of mineral dust, natural materials and fragrance. As they dissolve, they turn the shower water into true floral water.

The work is activated through gesture, which in turn becomes a sensory experience. Scent inhabits our pieces almost secretly, while being completely fused with them.