L'HUMANISTE

Eau de Parfum, 100ml

It is in the Renaissance that perfume, a princely pastime in Italian courts, became an art in France. And when François Rabelais imagined the Abbey of Thelema as a utopian centre of humanist culture, he included the use of the most delicate fragrances – rose water, orange blossom water and ‘angel water’ – among the refined pleasures of his ‘handsome, well-built and well-natured’ monks and nuns. It is to François Rabelais, the most illustrious member of the dynasty, that the house of Frapin has dedicated L’Humaniste, a fragrance as bracing and limpid as the curious, open minds of Renaissance men. The scent opens with a soaring burst of citrus vibrant with spices: zesty green cardamom, burning woody black pepper, anisic pink peppercorn, sweet nutmeg… Its playful ‘gin’ accord is a wink to Rabelaisian humour and to the oracle of the Divine Bottle consulted by Pantagruel. Bolstered by aromatic juniper and thyme, it tilts L’Humanist towards a distinctly masculine register, softened by a green, rosy peony in the heart notes, and by the almond, tobacco and hay facets of tonka bean of the base notes. A fresh, bright fougère composed by Sidonie Lancesseur.