Parfums-Jardins

Un Jardin en Méditerranée Hermès 2003

Bottle Design:
Fred Rawyler; Box Illustration: Aurore de la Morinerie

7.7 / 10 646 Ratings

A popular perfume by Hermès for women and men, released in 2003. The scent is fresh-green. It is still in production.
Pronunciation

Main accords

Fresh

Green

Citrus

Spicy

Woody

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Bergamot

Lemon

Orange

Heart Notes

Orange blossom

White oleander

Base Notes

Fig leaf

Cypress

Juniper

Red cedar

Musk

Pistachio

Perfumer

Jean-Claude Ellena

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

7.7646 Ratings

Longevity

6.8479 Ratings

Sillage

6.2452 Ratings

Bottle

7.9463 Ratings

Value for money

7.0193 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 07/26/2025.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the "Parfums-Jardins" collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Déjà Le Printemps (2012)

№ 18 Bogota Berlin Eau de Parfum

Vol d'Hirondelle

Hedera

Avgoustos

Sun Pop - Green Fusion

Reviews

22 in-depth fragrance descriptions

10/08/2021

9
Bottle 7
Sillage 7
Longevity 9
Scent

HugoMontez
80 Reviews

HugoMontez

6

Summer love

One of my first "hidden gems" that i came across when I started my journey years ago was this fragrance. A masterful composition by one of my favorites Perfumers, mister Jean-Claude Ellena.

He arrived at Hermès in 2003, and the first fragrance that he created was this one. This is probably one of my favorite spring/summer fragrances and even after these years and hundreds of fragrances tested, this is still a staple and a must have in my collection. My girlfriend steal it sometimes, cause she loves it too.

So what it smells like? Basically, a fresh, green, Mediterranean breeze in a summer afternoon. It starts off with a tomato steam accord. Very bitter, green but, still, with juicy and fruity elements. There's a cypress note that helps accentuate the green aspect and some nuttiness that camera from nowhere. Some would say pistachio, but i don't smell that.

Above this, and as the perfume develope, the fig tree and the leafs came to play and make this even more summery and refreshing. A true Mediterranean feel.

I live in a place where Fig trees can easily be found and i also a big fan of the smell and the fruit itself. This, although not the perfect reinterpretation of the Fig theme, it's definitely in the top 10 and, as a fresh-green scent, is probably one of the best. I love all the facets. The green cypress and fig leafs, the nuttiness, the refreshing tomato steam accord, the overall summer afternoon feel. A very good company on a summer afternoon walk after beach.

If you don't know this fragrance and love fig trees and wish for summer holidays in Italy, test this one out. Grab your sunglasses, put on your favorite flip-flops, a tripped t-shirt and some shorts, close your eyes and enjoy the Mediterranean breeze that this fragrance creates in the air.

Just a sidenote, the performance is not the greatest but it's decent. 5-6h with good projection in the first hour.

4/5

PS: I would give it a 5* rating but we have to be honest, objetive and unbiased. A very recommended one and my favorite from the line, with Un Jardin Sur Le Nil being a very close second.

05/20/2025

ClaireV
774 Reviews

ClaireV

5

Fresh, viney fig with an emotive power

Less single-minded in its pursuit of the Full Fig experience than Philosykos, Un Jardin en Méditerranée situates its fig (and fig leaf) accord in the context of a garden, so you smell the bright-watery-green notes of a fig that is growing alongside other things – a shrubby oleander (fragrant but coarse, broad), sappy woods, and the crunchy, aqueous stems of other plants. My bottle has darkened with time, taking on a brackish jasmine tea note note that I think adds greatly to its charm. While no masterpiece, it remains a nostalgic favourite of mine for two reasons. First, it is the perfume that, upon smelling it at an airport, opened my eyes to the existence of a vast world of perfume possibility beyond the Bvlgari and Burberry perfumes I had worn for most of my life to date.

Second, my father, who is a real Hermes fan, brought this over to Rome on what I now see was a humanitarian mission to save me from myself during my first incredibly bleak month living away from my husband and two (then) very small kids. It was January, it was cold and dark, and I was, I think, quite depressed. Over the course of a weekend, the man brought me a cafetiere, gave me his woolly hat to tide me over until I could buy my own, and when I enthused to him about what the perfume he had brought with him – Un Jardin en Méditerranée – had once meant to me, he sneakily left me his bottle on the bathroom shelf, letting me come across it myself after I’d dropped him at the train station. That’s why, though I don’t wear it all that much anymore, it has come to be much more than a perfume to me, rather a symbol of a Dad who, despite his faults as a father (and mine as a daughter), always came through for his child when they were in distress.

08/26/2016

6
Bottle 7
Sillage 4
Longevity 8.5
Scent

MasterLi
375 Reviews

MasterLi

3

The scent of green figs...

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of the Un Jardin series of fragrances. I love the work of Jean-Claude Ellena and find that his work is nothing short of superb in every aspect. I had been wanting to try this perfume for a long time.

Finally, I've been wearing it recently and have enjoyed it. My initial preconception was that it would be a sweet, juicy fig type of scent, much like Acqua di Parma - Blu Mediterraneo: Fico di Amalfi, however here is a green figgy scent which is more in keeping with the same style as Un Jardin Sur le Nil, another green fragrance. I must say that as a fig perfume, I do prefer the Acqua di Parma version. However this one does make me feel that if you didn't like Sur le Nil (i.e. you found it "too green") then you would like this instead.

Overall, this is well worth a try in my opinion, if you like fresh, spring & summer fragrances with substance. A masterful effort from Jean-Claude Ellena.

01/30/2025

9
Pricing 8
Bottle 7
Sillage 7
Longevity 8
Scent

Musicandarts
206 Reviews

Musicandarts

4

A fig leaf pioneer - gentle, elegant and sophisticated

Un Jardin en Mediterranee is an older classic that highlights the fig leaf accord, though Philosykos preceded it by many years. Jean-Claude Ellena describes his creative process behind the Hermes Jardin series eloquently in his books. Hermes sent him to the locations that are associated with each perfume to capture the atmosphere the embodies these places in our imagination. According to Hermes, Un Jardin en Mediterranee “evokes a walk through a secret Tunisian garden exuberantly overflowing with trees and flowers” by “combining olfactory, visual and tactile sensations” associated with this experience. Hermes does us all a great service by selling its perfumes, particularly the Jardin series, in smaller volumes. Instead of bothering to test a sample, you can jump straight into a 15 ml bottle for $20. This review is based on a 15 ml bottle bought from a US discounter.

According to Parfumo, the major notes for Un Jardin en Mediterranee are bergamot, lemon, orange, orange blossom, white oleander, fig leaf, cypress, juniper, red cedar, musk and pistachio. It doesn’t surprise me that many of these notes are missing for my nose, perhaps engulfed by other notes. If this perfume was designed by Cartier’s Mathilde Laurent, she would simplify these into citrus, white oleander, fig leaf and juniper. But I won’t argue if someone with better nose can smell cedar and cypress. Hermes website lists pink laurel as the white floral, not white oleander. The only note I have a concern is pistachio, because I suspect Ellena uses green lentisk (see Hermes website) instead of the pistachio nut. Following the typical Jean-Claude Ellena tradition, all the notes are always present, though their intensity varies. The citrus notes are noticeable in the opening but become less prominent as time goes by. The heart notes and base notes are essentially the same blend with everything, except the citrus notes. As it is a lovely fragrance, I don’t complain about the lack of development. Nor is this characteristic uncommon with other fig leaf fragrances.

Performance is the area where Un Jardin en Mediterranee comes a bit short. But if you are familiar with Ellena’s writing, you know that this is by design. As Un Jardin en Mediterranee is not very expensive, a second application after six hours may be worthwhile. The sillage is good when the perfume is alive on your skin, which happens during the first few hours. It will work beautifully as an office perfume because of its delicate elegance.

I recommend Un Jardin en Mediterranee strongly, both for its quality and its affordability. You cannot go wrong this perfume as your starter fig leaf fragrance. It is also great choice as a travel perfume, because it is elegant and inoffensive. I carry the travel size in my cosmetics bag as a travel essential. Though Un Jardin en Mediterranee is a classic, there is competition among fig leaf perfumes. I encourage fig leaf enthusiasts to also test Givenchy Trouble Fete and Dior Dioriviera as these perfumes turn up the floral notes a notch and produce great results.

11/11/2015

K1
121 Reviews

K1

Helpful Review 2

Summer weather, leisure, resorts, and cocktails

Un Jardin En Mediterranée is a soft aromatic fragrance around fig and conifer with insisting floral base. A little odd, but so nice. A bit gourmand (or let me say gastronomic) with tomato paste smell.
6.5/10

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