Jean-Louis Fargeon, perfumer to Marie-Antoinette was born in Montpellier in 1748. One of his ancestors supplied perfumes to the Duchesse de Montpensier at the end of the 17th century.
Marie-Antoinette was easily won over by the man who gave her a gift of perfumed gloves and who, like her, delighted in perfumes and smells.
He became her official supplier, making up the light perfumes which she liked. Her preferences, like those of her contemporaries, were for the scent of rose, lily, violet and carnation, in reaction to those of the reign of Louis XIV, dominated by musk, civet and amber.
At his ease in the private apartments of the queen and her family - he also supplied perfume to her children - Jean-Louis Fargeon did not neglect his business affairs, running shops in London, Bordeaux and Nantes.
