Macron’s life-style: The French president’s industrial-scale spritzing is rather a way of asserting power and “marking his territory”

Emmanuel Macron – pictured with Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni – wears so much cologne that aides ‘scent’ his presence before he enters the room.
Photo: The Telegraph

There are few among us who haven’t experienced the headache-inducing horror of an overpowering waft of someone else’s perfume. But it seems that this is an unusually frequent occurrence for the aides of Emmanuel Macron, who can allegedly “scent” the French president’s presence before he enters a room, ‘The Telegraph’ writes.

Extracts from a newly released book ‘The Tragedy of the Elysée’, by Le Parisien journalist Olivier Beaumont, claim that Mr Macron spays on “industrial amounts” of Dior Eau Sauvage “at all hours of the day”.

The bestselling fragrance, which retails from £64, is citrus-led and faintly spicy. According to Dior, it features notes of Calabrian bergamot and Papua New Guinean vanilla extract, which “unfurl a powerful and noble trail”.

According to the book, Macron is well aware of this. “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,” it states.

For those in the surrounding area, it sounds like overkill. One of his former aides is quoted in the book describing the president’s industrial-scale spritzing as “not subtle”, but rather a way of asserting power and “marking his territory”.

It appears that the president may be suffering from the olfactory equivalent of “blusher blindness”. The term, popularised on social media, refers to an inability to objectively gauge how much blusher one is applying – often resulting in overly rouged cheeks. Perhaps Macron has spent so long swept up in a cloud of Eau Sauvage that he’s become desensitised to it.

But that doesn’t mean everyone in his vicinity has, and it must be remembered that scent sensitivity can vary wildly from person to person – not least those affected by hormonal fluctuations. While it’s chic to have a signature scent, a little restraint is advisable when it comes to its application.

Macron, it seems, will be sticking to a boat-load of Eau Sauvage. But while he might be attempting a bold monarchical statement with his perfume application, it’s subtle spritzing that has the most powerful effect.

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