Louis XIV wanted figs when figs were out of season. His gardener Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie planted more than seven hundred fig trees in the royal kitchen garden at Versailles and trained them against sun-warmed walls so the fruit would ripen in a cold climate. Jules Hardouin-Mansart built the pavilion. It was called the Figuerie.
Émilie Bouge's view was that no fig and patchouli had yet given the fruit without tipping it into dessert. So Figuerie starts with the leaf. Cedar leaf, fig leaves and ethereal humus at the top, the humus being what puts the shaded greenhouse in it. Hyacinth, copaiba and a green bouquet in the heart. Sandalwood, tonka bean, Tasuki patchouli and moss crystals underneath.
Hugo Ferroux, Trudon's creative director, went through the house archives and the Versailles records for it. The glass is celadon and fluted, with the gold emblem, paler than the Trudon green of the other diffusers. 350ml and eight rattan reeds give three to four months. Refills come in 300ml and a litre. The Figuerie Classic candle is the same composition, for a room where somebody will tend a flame.
A diffuser keeps working when nobody is home, which is the reason to own one in a house used at weekends. Someone drives down on a Friday night after a fortnight away. The door opens on fig leaf rather than closed-up air.
Spec
- 350ml reed diffuser
- Eight rattan reeds
- Fluted celadon glass with gold emblem
- Perfumer Émilie Bouge
- Creative director Hugo Ferroux
- Top: cedar leaf, fig leaves, ethereal humus
- Heart: hyacinth, copaiba, green bouquet
- Base: sandalwood, tonka bean, Tasuki patchouli, moss crystals
- Three to four months of diffusion
- Refills in 300ml and 1000ml, sold separately
