Prestige de Menton
Citrus perfumery from the lemon capital of France.
Prestige de Menton is a French niche fragrance house founded in 1947 by Louis Berneux in the Riviera town of Menton, which sits on the Italian border and is celebrated for producing what many regard as the finest lemons in the world. Menton's Fête du Citron — an annual citrus festival dating to 1934 — reflects how deeply lemon cultivation is woven into the town's identity, and Berneux built a fragrance house that honours this heritage explicitly. The compositions are citrus-forward, with Menton lemon providing luminous, slightly sweet top notes that differ perceptibly from Sicilian or Spanish lemon in character. Bergamot, neroli, and other Mediterranean aromatics form natural supporting roles. The house produces both personal fragrances and home scent products, and continues to operate from the Riviera rather than relocating to Paris, which gives it a genuine provenance claim that many heritage-positioned brands lack. Nearly eighty years on, Prestige de Menton remains a credible and specific entry in French regional niche perfumery.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
