A homage to the fabrics and fragrances favoured by the last queen of France before the French Revolution, the unveiling was never going to be anything less than a spectacle worthy of Versailles.
In a factory in Mortagne-au-Perche, a town on a hill in Normandy, northwestern France, a wax bust of Napoléon is having its underside smoothed on a hotplate, its bicorn blasted with an air gun. Watching from shelves are several Marie Antoinettes in shades of pink, grey and ivory, and a navy-blue Louis X1V, his periwig curling past his shoulders, a cotton wick protruding from his head.
Trudon has been in business for a remarkable 380 years now, supplying everyone from the Sun King to American comedian/author David Sedaris . A worker applies the gold foil finish to a cameo of Napoléon on an Imperial Pillar candle. Trudon became a supplier to the Imperial court of France in 1811. “Our motto means ‘They [the bees] work for God and the King’,” says Pruvost, leading us past workers pouring batches of vegetal wax and natural fragrance into partially recycled glasses; past conveyor belts where air bubbles are eliminated and wicks are straightened and straightened again to ensure an even burn ; past an odourless laboratory in which scents are tested in airtight ‘fragrance cabins’ and sustainable materials prioritised.
In 2018, Trudon partnered with the Orne Dark Bee Conservatory inside Perche Nature Park, a 12-hive enterprise tucked behind a barrier at the end of an unmade road lined with hedgerows. This being Trudon, we arrive at the conservatory on an open-top carriage pulled by two giant Percheron horses with apple rumps and feathered hooves, then don white beekeeping suits to meet Raymond Daman, the head beekeeper.
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