ery early on, man discovered this marvellous deep-blue stone - lapis lazulli - in the Persian mines of Kashân, using it to make a glassy paste, called glazing and to decorate slabs of dried clay with it.

Throughout history, architecture and ceramics have proved to be inextricably linked - beginning in ancient Egypt, followed by Mesopotamia and the entire Near East and finally reaching Europe. The Mediterranean contributed decisively to the development of this marvellous art, as rich in its beauty as in the cultural clues it gives us concerning the customs of each of the peoples that used it then, and continue to use it now. Without this sea, the “ceramics route” that leads from Orient to Occident through Africa and Spain would not have existed. Myriad examples of this art are to be found everywhere around the Mediterranean, with profusely multicoloured motifs that abound in intricate, refined compositions, arousing increasing wonder at every step.

Azul intends to take you along these inexhaustible routes, making a halt at decors behind which there lie “concealed” fragrances, thus creating perfect harmony between place, decor and fragrance.

Let us dream our way along the road of azure, on a marvellously fragrant voyage along the coloured paths of the Mediterranean’s glazed-earthenware tiles…