This research addresses both the production and the reception of a touristic imagination. Based on an ethnographic investigation conducted on the town of Grasse, in the Maritime Alps, this work highlights the ambivalence of Grasse/perfume and proposes to go beyond this model showing the importance of the association Grasse/Provence. After an evolutionary presentation of the main characteristics of the city, of certain topological social and cultural features which today make it unique and recognisable territory, we show how the municipalities and tourist authorities enhance the essence of the city through urban facilities and local productions. Thus, souvenirs syncretize city discourse transmitted and produced around and about the city contributing to the creation and transmission of representations of oneself, for oneself and for others. The study of the representations of the city of Grasse stresses its local identity logic influenced by touristic promotion - using cultural material such as posters, postcards, souvenirs but also speeches, literature and ideas - available to tourists. The very process of patrimonialization influences the inhabitants. They have been given the opportunity to give their point of view where they stand in relation with the omnipresent tourism imaginaries representations of the city.
The identity of a town through its artefacts : Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes), from 1860 until today : a study of the tourist imaginary and local identity co-construction