Cire Trudon

The burning of a heady perfumed candle is one of life’s great pleasures, a personal ritual that is highly sensual, quietly intimate. When we dream of other sybaritic delights such as fragrance and fine wine, thoughts naturally turn to France, and so it follows that the most exquisite candles should also hail from there. Cire Trudon was established in Paris in 1643, by Claude Trudon and is the oldest candle making house in the world. The enterprise soon became entwined with royalty and Maison de Cire Trudon became the official supplier to the court of Louis XIV and to the cathedrals and churches of France. The original candles were made from beeswax, hence the Latin motto and emblem that still adorns the labels today, “Deo Regique Laborant” meaning ‘They (the bees) work for God and The King’. Cire Trudon managed to maintain its status throughout the turbulent French Revolution, despite ties to the palace and to Queen Marie Antoinette and by 1811 was producing candles for the Napoleonic court. The candles are in a class of their own, created by authentic perfume “noses” each with a pretty, poetic name and inspiration. There is Abd el Kader, based on an Algerian poet and philosopher from 1808, an exotic cocktail of jasmine, clove, ginger, mint and apple; the leather, tobacco, rum and moss base of Ernesto, inspired by Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara; Josephine, a floral garden containing notes of Turkish rose, Indonesian sandalwood, Egyptian jasmine and kaffir lime. Each candle is unique and hand crafted; the glass is made in Tuscany, the candles are hand poured and the cotton wicks placed individually in the Cire Trudon factory in Normandy. They are the most ravishingly aromatic candles to be found in a not uncluttered landscape. The largest (and most expensive bien sur) will burn for 300 hours. That is a lot of time to dream.