a scented palace by elisabeth de feydeau

While arrested, he managed to escape trial. While the perfumer declared himself to be a Republican, he was also a wealthy man with royal connections and thus a natural target for the Revolution. Tracing Marie Antoinette's extravagant expenditures and far-fetched follies amid increasingly enraged public opinion, Feydeau charts the fall of the house of Versailles, Marie Antoinette's decline during her imprisonment and Fargeon's own fate. Fargeon won the queen's favor with a gift of exceptional scented kidskin riding gloves and rapidly gained her confidence he treated her secret pregnancy-related hair loss and became her loyal friend. A native of Montpellier, Fargeon moved to Paris, becoming an apprentice to one of the city's most fashionable perfumers. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.Feydeau, a professor at the Versailles School of Perfumers, draws on the papers of perfumer Jean-Louis Fargeon to reveal the secrets of his luxurious creations for Marie Antoinette. Yet he remained fiercely loyal to Marie Antoinette, beyond her desperate flight to Varennes, her execution and even through his own imprisonment and trial. 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. The untold story of Marie-Antoinette's perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon.

A scented palace by elisabeth de feydeau