Mr Guerlain, now retired, caused offence during a TV interview in October 2010 in which he was asked to explain how he created the Samsara perfume.
"For once, I set to work like a ------. I don't know if ------- have always worked so hard, but anyway ..." he said.
Yesterday (Thurs), the 75-year-old apologised profusely as he appeared in court in Paris on charges of casting "racist insults".
He faces up to six months in prison and a 22,500 euro (£19,900) fine.
"The first part of my phrase was something I heard my entire childhood when I worked in my grandfather's garden. I come from another generation. It was a common expression at the time."
"As for the second phrase, it was an idiocy on my part. I was trying to make the interviewer laugh and I regret it." "I deeply regret it and present my excuses to the black community," he went on.
"I am anything but racist," he added, recounting how he met black GIs after the Second World War who introduced him to "chewing gum and Coca-Cola".
Mr Guerlain's remark on air had sparked angry condemnation from anti-racism groups, and a deluge of protests on Twitter with comments like "Guerlain, the parfumier who stinks".
Continued on Page 47
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
