Olfactive Flashback XI.

One of my best friend here in Grasse invited me over for dinner on Saturday night. I think it is the start of the goodbyes' series already, but I tried not to think about it.

She is an excellent cook, I was served chicken with asparagus. For the asparagus, she wanted to prepare a sauce made of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Her olive oil bottle was almost empty, so I helped her to refill it with their stock of olive oil coming directly from Tunisia. We wasted a lot of oil in the "rebottling" process, but most importantly I had another olfactive flashback when the thick aroma of the pure olive oil hit my nose.

To my biggest surprise, it took me back to my grandmother's house, inside the bedroom, changing the bed linen. The clean bad linen -stored carefully until usage into my grandma's cupboard ca. 25 years ago- smelled exactly the same like the scent of some premium quality extra virgin olive oil from Tunisia. Fatty, green, earthy and a bit acid too.

The smell was not "alike" nor "similar", it was the SAME. I know it. With my nose, with my brain where the scent directly went to poke that part where this particular scent was stocked just until now, to fill my head with memories and my heart with warmth and love.