"Everything that could be scented, was, and on occasion even the impossibly extravagant fountains of Versailles were perfumed. I imagine the fountain's mist on the breeze must have been a full body experience. (Louis XIV overdid it and ended up unable to have anything perfumed near him at the end of his life. Even the scent of blooming flowers caused him migraines. Let it be a lesson to those who over-apply!)"Lucy Raubertas
If you have not already done so, Please check out the new Poll on the right!! --->
How exquisite! Only in Louis XIV's France
ReplyDeletePoor Louis! All the man wanted was a little oppulence! :P
ReplyDeleteHeaven save us from those who wear too much scent. When older women who love a certain variety of floral scent come into my studio to browse, I have to hit the HVAC and Fabreeze in double measure to save myself from a headache. Bluck!
ReplyDeleteNow-a-days Fragrance is meant to be discovered, not announced.
ReplyDeleteBut I am sure I would be (and perhaps you too) one who douses myself and everything nearby in 18th century France!
Everything about this king was oppulent..and that's just the way I like him;) Can you imagine the scent of perfumed fountains? Wow- he really did think of everything in design!
ReplyDeleteI love Lucy's site- she posts amazing stuff. Thanks:)
Wow, and to think I thought some of the guys downtown were strong...the entire FOUNTAIN??? Yeesh. Talk about Eau de toilette, that was more like Eau de fontaine!
ReplyDeleteI find most perfumes too chemically (not really a word, I know) for my poor senses and can sympathize with the migraines. I suspect Louis XIV just had too much of a good thing and developed an allergy.
ReplyDeleteThe Eau de fontaine comment is really funny. :)
Re the perfume poll, I was able to get a whiff of the Marie scent at a museum where the Trianon show traveled last year, and let me tell you. What a pong! It was a recreation based on her favorite scent recipe, so who knows how accurate it was, but it was tres potent and had a stodgy-musty-grandma-in-the-attic floral quality. I didn't much care for it myself but wondered if perfumes then were extra powerful to cover the extra stink. Especially at Versailles, where a lot of people lived cheek to jowl and where even classy people urinated in the halls.
ReplyDeleteBut a perfumed fountain sounds sooo romantic.
The novel 'Perfume' mentions the scented fountains of Paris - along with the incredible stench of the city. One description of a fountain cologne was a mixture of sandalwood and lilac [I think] which sounds like it would be heavenly wafting on a twilight breeze.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, regarding how much to wear: it's way sexier to smell scent on a person when you have to reach across them to push an elevator button or lean over paperwork together at the office than it is to be accosted by it just because you happen to be walking twenty feet behind them on an open street.
I have not read Perfume! But I agree on the sandalwood & lilac. Maybe it can go in my queue of books...Do you suggest it?
ReplyDeleteI liked the book, though it was disturbing, but the rest of the book club panned it - although I might be permitted to say, with admitted prejudice, that I do have far superior taste to the inmates of that particular society.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reference! I was away for a little while on a pilgrimage to Van Gogh/Hans Memling country and just now got a few moments to myself go over my favorite sites, where I find this -- how lovely. I hope your readers do go to DSH and try the sampler set, it is an affordable way to physically and mentally experience the court of Eighteenth Century France. Time travel in its purest form.
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