As the origin site for the craft of professional perfumery since the 17th century, the Palace of Versailles has a long, rich history in making French kings, queens, and their courtiers smell divine. Now, Francis Kurkdjian, perhaps the most famous graduate of the city of Versailles’ perfumery school, has given back in the form of a lush new Perfumer’s Garden.
Open to the public, the Perfumer’s Garden is situated in the Châteauneuf Orangery in the heart of the palace’s Trianon Estate, an area that’s home to the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon palaces, as well as the impossibly charming Hameau de la Reine, a tiny, functioning farm Marie Antoinette used as a retreat from the pomp and circumstance of court life.
A joint effort between the Trianon gardeners and Maison Francis Kurkdjian, the Paris-based niche fragrance house Kurkdjian created with co-founder and President Marc Chaya in 2009, the garden brings together hundreds of flowering species. These include classic plants such as rose and jasmine, unexpected essences like chocolate and apple, and even “mute” flowers à la hyacinth, violet, and peony, which emit no actual scent and must be replicated synthetically.
“We worked together to select the species,” Kurkdjian says of the project. “We had a deep exchange about flowers and plants and thought together how to best ensure successive blooms so that there would always be something happening in the garden.”
The mutual exchange of ideas proved beneficial to everyone involved, Kurkdjian notes. “We all learned something from each other,” he says, “and shared the pleasure of watching this develop.”
Guided tours and workshops allow guests of Versailles to view and access the garden’s three distinct areas. The Orangery-adjacent “Garden of Curiosities” is the gathering spot for the bulk of the flowering plants. “Under the Trees” is a walkway redolent of Japanese cherry blossoms. Finally, “The Secret Garden” serves up what the official palace website describes as a “more intimate area” for visitors.
More than just another lovely-to-look-at section of Versailles, the Perfumer’s Garden was created to illuminate the centuries-old backstory of fragrance-making. Sparked by a passion for the intensely scented blooms that lined the palace’s paths and parterres (i.e., the level spaces formally decked out with flower beds), early perfumers at Versailles began not only crafting splash-on fragrances for members of the court, but once they had perfected their extraction techniques, that handiwork extended to all manner of scented objets, including sachets, wigs, fans, and gloves.
Kurkdjian, a native of France known for creating such blockbusters as Jean-Paul Gaultier Le Mâle, Elizabeth Arden Green Tea, and Narciso Rodriguez For Her prior to opening his own house, graduated from the Institut Supérieur International du Parfum, de la Cosmétique et de l'Aromatique Alimentaire (ISIPCA), the postgraduate learning facility with campuses in Paris and Versailles. He has long been instrumental in bringing the history of Versailles fragrance-making to life for younger generations.
In 2006, with the help of archival documents, he crafted Sillage de la Reine (“In the Wake of the Queen”), a limited-edition replica of Marie Antoinette’s signature scent. Briefly available for sale in the Versailles gift shop—the proceeds were designated for the purchase of a wooden traveling case the queen once used—the rare, costly scent is, to this day, the subject of much fascination on fragrance-nerd websites.
Later, in a nod to the lavish parties thrown by the Sun King that featured scented fountains and pools, Kurkdjian created a number of olfactory installations. “Soleil de Minuit” for the Versailles Off festival in 2006 paired a pool of flaming sunset-orange water with the scent of orange blossoms. In 2007 and 2008, Kurkdjian really tapped his imagination for the palace’s annual “Grandes Eaux Nocturnes” summer evening events. For “Chutt.. d’Eau” in the Grove of the Three Fountains, he deployed bubble machines to dispense thousands of bubbles scented with the favorite fruits of Louis XIV, namely strawberry, pear, and melon. For his “Le Roi Danse” installation in the Ballroom Grove, Kurkdjian mounted a massive trompe l’oeil theater curtain illuminated with 600 candles emitting the powdery scent of violet.
While perhaps less dramatic, Kurkdjian is thrilled the new Perfumer’s Garden will help visitors dial in to the legendary Château’s rich olfactive history on a more tangible, lasting level. “When I was a kid, Versailles was the king, the queen, and that’s it,” he says. “For a while now, people have become interested in the different types of craftsmanship there, rediscovering the richness of the various types of savoir faire.”
