“So you like flowers?” Louis XIV said to his young queen, “Well, I’ve got a bouquet for you–the Petit-Trianon.” And so Marie Antoinette took over the splendid former residence of Madame de Pompadour, transforming the gardens into an enchanted landscape. Using archival documents and architect Richard Mique’s original plans from 1777, Elisabeth de Feydeau recreates the fanciful herbarium, taking the reader on a journey through Marie Antoinette’s estate, just as the queen herself would have walked it. The reader is invited to proceed from the French Gardens, with their beds of hyacinth, buttercups, and anemones, via the winding paths of the Anglo-Chinese Gardens, through the conifers of the Belvedere Gardens, where fabulous late night parties were hosted, and past the entrancing aromas of the shrubs surrounding the Temple of Love, to the wildflowers of the Garden of Solitude. Elisabeth de Feydeau’s fascinating reconstruction plunges the reader into the eighteenth century, showcasing newly-discovered species and the cosmetic uses of many of the garden’s plants, alongside anecdotes from the royal court. The volume is brought to life by delicate watercolors of the herbarium by Pierre- Joseph Redouté, a designer and painter for Marie Antoinette’s Cabinet.


With a PhD in history, perfume specialist Elisabeth de Feydeau has authored books including Les parfums (Robert Laffont, 2011) and Jean-Louis Fargeon, parfumeur de Marie-Antoinette (Perrin, 2005). She is also an expert on the perfumes of major houses such as Chanel and Guerlain, and teaches at the Ecole des Parfumeurs in Versailles.