Dear Anneliese,

I have just visited the exquisite Palace of Versailles. Though there is much to say on the baroque architecture and abundant salons, I found myself most entranced by the beautiful gardens.

I have been doing some reading on King Louis XIV who was responsible for the construction of the Palace and its surrounding grounds. It is said that he was terrified of bathing (at the time it was a common fear amongst nobility that water spreads diseases), and yet he had a reputation for being immensely sweet-scented! The French court was so fragrant during his rule that it earned the nickname of the ‘Perfumed Court’. Bowls of flower petals were distributed throughout the palace and visitors were sprayed with perfume upon arrival.

Tuberose was a particular love of the King’s. He planted them in the thousands in the flower beds of the Grand Trianon. Though it is a simple flower in appearance, with clusters of small, white tubular blooms, it has the most potent scent. It blooms at night and suffuses through the air with its lush and creamy, yet green and narcotic fragrance. The flower has been distilled and used in perfumery since the 17th century, and was likewise favoured by Marie Antoinette.

Don’t you think it’s special that we can smell the same flowers these historical figures smelled? So many things change over the ages, and yet we can stroll through gardens at night, still looking at the same moon, and breathe in the same heady scent of tuberose. These small, everyday experiences through our senses seem so insignificant, but they are the most fundamentally human, linking us all through time.

I’ll write to you again soon, from wherever it is I find myself to be.

All my love,

Eden