Emmanuel Macron wears so much cologne that his staff often make jokes about it, it has been claimed. The French President wears “industrial amounts” of Dior Eau Sauvage as a deliberate “attribute of power”, according to a new book on life at the Elysée Palace.
The book claimed that Macron tops up with cologne “at all hours of the day” and the smell is so strong that his aides “scent” his presence before he enters the room. He reportedly “always has a bottle to hand, particularly in one of the drawers of his desk”. An extract in The Tragedy of the Elysée, by Le Parisien journalist Olivier Beaumont, says: “Less-accustomed visitors may find themselves overcome by the floral and musky scent, as refined as it is powerful. It is a sign of one thing: that the president is in the building.”
It adds: “Just as Louis XIV made his perfumes an attribute of power when he paraded through the galleries of Versailles, Emmanuel Macron uses his as an element of his authority at the Elysée.”
An 100ml bottle of Dior Eau Sauvage costs £104. It is the best-selling fragrance in the world and is synonymous with the famous actor Johnny Depp, as reported by the Telegraph.
One of Macron’s former aides said: “When Emmanuel Macron enters the room, you can feel it.” The book adds that his excessive cologne use is a way of asserting his power, “almost of marking his territory”.
The aide added: “It’s not subtle, but it’s fast. It means: ‘watch out, here I come!’ So much so that several staff members ended up joking about an expression they heard from one wing to the other: ‘It smells like the president’.”
Bruno Roger-Petit, one of Macron’s top aides, said: “You only have to be in the Vestibule d’honneur to know whether he has been there recently or not.”
President Macron has a close relationsip with Bernard Arnault, who is France and Europe’s richest person. Dior is a large part of his LVMH empire.
Macron’s wife, Brigitte, wears Louis Vuitton, also an Arnault brand. The book read: “Even after 20 years of living together, Brigitte is still surprised by this and lets out a loud ‘ohhh’ when asked about her husband’s smell.”
It added: “This does not prevent her, when he sometimes flies abroad for a few days, from allowing herself a little coquetry: spraying herself lightly with her husband’s perfume… to have the feeling that her man is not very far away.”
