L’Arc Parfumes
While being an ambitious architect in the pursue of innovative designs, Maître de Claude went on an olfactive transformational journey that was and still is an inspiration for many generations.
We are the exclusive distributor for L’Arc Parfums in Southern Africa
Inspired by Maitre de Claude’s commitment to purse his passion for unique scents, L’Arc Parfums distinguishes itself by being the first house of perfume dedicated to the seekers of grace and artistry.
L’Arc’s exquisite craftsmanship is reflected in its meticulous attention to detail, especially when it comes to the design of its elegant bottles and the choice of its complex fragrances.
Join us on a journey of scents, a journey into the world of the devoted Maître de Claude and his ultimate quest for true love.
The Voyage Collection
Little did Maître de Claude know of what the future held for him when he made his way into the vast world in search of new motifs and themes to enrich the heritage of his family of architects who specialized in designing arches. Maître de Claude was not quite content with the extent of skillfulness and creativity his ancestors have achieved and believed it was time to bring in more ideas to further the family’s heritage and keep it ahead of all other competition.
Fortune had other plans for Maître de Claude in store. From a pilgrim of architectural artistry to a paragon of perfume making, Maître de Claude’s life story was written with notes of a different kind.
It is said that Maître de Claude travelled the world in so many places, and experienced the beauty of its cultures starting from Sicily through Tahiti, spending months in Morocco, Egypt amongst other destinations. L’Arc perfumes are a tribute to these wonderful destinations.
The Memoire Collection
Maître de Claude’s voyage around the world was not only recorded in his mind and heart; it was inked on the pages of a memoire where every line evoked the scent of a moment anchored in time and the aroma of a sweet discovery. The words of his journal recount the nostalgic journey back home, a call from the port of Havana under the moon’s silver shine to the shores of the French land.
Arrived, Maître de Claude is faced with a reality he had never imagined for himself, a twist of fate that leaves him deserted and heart-broken, wandering like a nomad, until hope of a new life unfolds under his eyes. The love for a small gipsy girl sets fire in his heart again, bringing back meaning to his life and the assertion of an invincible passion for the universe of fragrance. The memoire recalls the intense moments of a mature phase in the life of Maître de Claude, the essence of which shall forever be commemorated in the perfumes of a Memoire Collection.
L’Arc Parfums
A Story of Scents
Little did Maître de Claude know what the future held for him when he set his path on the Via Francigena that was initially to take him from his birthplace in France to the Holy See in Rome.
Being an ambitious architect and the youngest inheritor of his family’s arch design craftsmanship, Maître de Claude set off on an inspirational journey through the reviving splendor of the mesmerizing Gothic abbeys that were connected by the old route of Sigeric.
This Pilgrimage of Arts, from the Saint-Voût of Aosta to the giant arches of the Papal Basilica, passing by the Devil’s bridge of Borgo, the Duomo di Siena and the medieval towns of Lazio, turned out to be de Claude’s first venture in the realm of aromatics…
While the main design of his journey was meant to fall within the scope of his visual sense and analytical imagination, Maître de Claude’s spirit was however infiltrated and overwhelmed with something wistfully olfactory, with every monastic sojourn he made.
The particular presence imparted by the holy wafts of the abbatial incense, together with the untamed scents emanating from the natural fauna and flora that surrounded the estates, rekindled in his heart, a long-forgotten passion that was yet to be uncovered and unleashed from within.
It was the eternal city of Rome that unexpectedly revealed the inflection point of de Claude’s mission.
It wasn’t the charming aura of the Vatican gardens, heightened with whiffs of balsamic honeysuckle and basil that awakened the memory of his old obsession with a distinct incense that which de Claude had experienced at an early age, but the light silage of the incense permeating the colossal halls of the church.
Those memories go back to when his father would take him to the churches of Avignon, in quest for architectural inspiration, mainly to the impressive Palais des Papes, which used to be the papal siege in the middle ages, where the same unique incense was used.
Being the dedicated craftsman he is, Maître de Claude wasn’t about to halt his architectural quest for a French revival of the gothic arch craftsmanship at the first childhood memory that emerged in his mind, even though the siren call of an olfactory adventure was already attracting his newly budding passion.
Nevertheless, his nascent proclivity prompted him to start a travel journal in which he could lay forth the proliferating surges of his newfound allurement.