“Retour d’Égypte” intertwines two worlds from the 19th century, one a fantasy, the other quite real: Ancient Egypt of the pharaohs as the Romantics dreamt of it, in its sumptuous amber, vanilla and musk sillage, and bucolic France, lying on a bed of hawthorn, jasmine, fruity rose and bergamot, picked from the hedge.
With its floral and amber-like accords, “Retour d’Égypte” is a homage to a style much in vogue at the beginning of the 19th century, and that reached its apogee while perfumer Claude Bully created his apothecary shop and his famous vinaigre de toilette. Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign from 1798 to 1801 inspired a plethora of designs and patterns in French decorative arts: sphinxes, winged lions, lotuses, palmettes and scarabs decorate furniture in precious wood, Sèvres wares, majestic façades, even street names like rue du Nil, rue de Damielle, rue d’Aboukir or Passage du Caire. In October 1836, the obelisk from the Temple of Luxor, a spectacular gift from the Viceroy of Egypt, was erected with great fanfare in front of more than 200,000 delighted people, on the Place de la Concorde.
While breathing this scent where mesmerizing amber, wood and musk wrap around jasmine, rose and hawthorn in a golden halo, one instantly understands the words of Jean-François Champollion, the Egyptologist who at the time was the first to decipher hieroglyphics: “I belong to Egypt; it is everything to me:
The gardens of Belus intone: – The days
Pour out the perfumes, loves, sun’s rays;
Everlasting Spring, we are, we alone; our bower
The sweet unfurling rose of joy, in flower.""
“The Pyramids,” Victor Hugo
From the collection of poems The Legend of the Ages
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LES JARDINS FRANÇAIS DE L'OFFICINE
Engraving on soap