a scented palace by elisabeth de feydeau

Fargeon, a lifelong supporter of the Republican cause but a purveyor to the court, was in a dangerous position. He served as her personal and exclusive perfumer for fourteen years until 1789 when the darkness of Revolution swept across France, its wrath aimed at the extravagance of a now hated queen. After meeting Marie Antoinette in the Trianon Palace, he began creating lavish bespoke scents that perfectly reflected her moods and personality. Concocting sumptuous perfumes and pomades for most of the French nobility, Fargeon eventually caught the attention of the queen. His ambition carried him to Paris where his boutique became one of the most elegant and well-patronised in France. But he dreams of the glittering court of Versailles and of becoming perfumer to the young queen, Marie Antoinette.

Montpellier, 1748: Jean-Louis Fargeon is born into a family of perfumers and soon becomes apprentice to his father's modest perfumery. This list was devised with perfume lovers who just want more in mind.The untold story of Marie-Antoinette's perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon. The same way that some readers can vividly picture the characters and story as they read, other readers can imagine the scents described. When a book uses sensorial language, even in describing garbage and rotten food, that book is destined to become a favorite. We light candles (safely, of course) when we sit down to read. For fragrance lovers, like myself, simply wearing a perfume isn’t enough. Perfume ads are intentionally dreamlike, playing with the senses and emotions. Today, perfume is bought like an accessory to be changed with the weather or mood. Over time, perfume has become more than a hygiene regime. Humans, as it turns out, have always wanted to smell good. Perfumery has been in practice since at least Ancient Mesopotamia.

All it takes is one whiff of that scent and suddenly you’re remembering the first time you ever read a chapter book by yourself. It’s that pencil shavings, playdough, and no-tears shampoo combo that no one has managed to bottle yet. Today, fragrance is a huge international market with hundreds of options from sprays to oils to solids. Odors take a direct route from the olfactory bulb to centers in the brain that process emotions and memories. Scent, as we now understand it, is one of the most powerful memory triggers.

A scented palace by elisabeth de feydeau