LA MANUFACTURE PARFUMS — From the Keep at Moret to Perfumes Shaped by Architecture

La Manufacture Parfums Rare bottle against an imagined limestone arcade

I’ve now managed to bring together my two passions, perfumery and historic heritage.

— Bruno Truchon Bartès, founder

In the French town of Moret-sur-Loing stands a stone keep built in the twelfth century. Rare evokes the cool air behind its thick walls with bergamot, basil and the woody depth of vetiver. For Bruno Truchon Bartès, who founded La Manufacture Parfums, the keep was both the subject of a perfume and the place where his interest in historic buildings found its way into fine fragrance.

Key Information

Origins　Independent candle work began in 2011. Perfumes debuted in 2014.
Founder　Bruno Truchon Bartès
Country of origin　France
Official website　La Manufacture Parfums

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

Learning the Language of Perfume at Fragrance Houses

Truchon Bartès spent 17 years in sales, marketing and management at fragrance houses including IFF, Dragoco, Givaudan and Charabot. His work brought him into daily contact with perfumers, who taught him about fragrance materials and how to combine them.

Day by day, they taught me the language of perfume.

— Bruno Truchon Bartès

At Charabot, part of the Robertet group, he ran the Paris office. What stayed with him was the depth of the company’s knowledge of natural fragrance materials. Alongside his work in perfumery, he took part in the work of La Demeure Historique, an association dedicated to the preservation of historic buildings in France. It gave him the chance to visit houses and châteaux whose atmospheres later became material for his own work.

Turning Time Spent in Châteaux into Scented Candles

Truchon Bartès began working independently in 2011, making scented candles inspired by his visits to historic places. Sources differ on when La Manufacture des Châteaux began: his Viadeo profile gives 2011, while a 2017 interview in Snobismes dates the brand’s launch to 2012. The interview distinguishes his move into independent work in 2011 from the brand launch in 2012, but the reason for the difference from his profile remains unconfirmed. Feu Souverain, for instance, takes its inspiration from the Château de Chambord. His aim was to capture something of his own time in these buildings.

A contemporary atmosphere connected to those moments I personally spent in the châteaux.

— Bruno Truchon Bartès

A candlemaker trained in a craft passed down through his family worked with the perfumer to adjust the fragrance and wax to each other. They tested the scent both before lighting the candle and while it burned. A memory of a building could start the work, but the candle still had to give off its scent in a room.

From the Keep at Moret to Colognes for the Skin

The idea for a perfume to wear took shape around the Donjon de Moret, near Fontainebleau. A “Cologne du Donjon” could bring together Truchon Bartès’s interests in historic architecture and perfume. Accounts differ on the keep’s ownership. A brand introduction reproduced by Aus Liebe zum Duft in 2015 described it as belonging to a friend of Bruno’s, while La Clé Publique reported in 2026 that Truchon Bartès had inherited it from his family in 1989. The difference between these accounts remains unresolved. The idea took time to develop, and the house debuted its perfumes in 2014. Rare, Noble and Précieuse were part of the early Les Colognes Essentielles collection.

The keep remained part of Truchon Bartès’s work. After his time with La Manufacture Parfums he started Le Comptoir Olfactif, which runs workshops where participants blend their own perfumes. During the European Heritage Days in 2026, the keep’s programme included an event on medieval perfumery that invited visitors to identify ten scents.

The House’s Approach to Perfumery

Essences — The Cool Air Behind the Walls in Rare

The current Essences collection draws on French architecture and ways of living, using the brightness of citrus alongside florals and soft musks. Rare, one of the early colognes, evokes the cool of morning inside the keep’s stone walls. The perfumer behind it is Carla Chabert.

I chose bergamot from Italy for its lavender and pepper undertones.

— Carla Chabert, perfumer of Cologne Rare, quoted from the former brand website by The Scented Hound in 2016

In the original Cologne Rare, Chabert used the anise-like character of Egyptian basil to carry the fragrance from citrus into greener territory. Haitian vetiver gave that greenery a smoky, leathery shade. Bergamot, basil and vetiver also anchor the current eau de parfum. The transition from bright citrus through herbs into wood gives the impression of moving into the cool behind the walls.

Opus Matières — Abbey Stone and Stable Leather

Opus Matières draws on buildings and spaces around the world, evoking them through materials with more depth and texture, including resins, woods and leather accords. Nathalie Koobus composed Admirabilis around Fontfroide, a Cistercian abbey in southern France. Airy elemi resin suggests the clarity of the air. Warm amber and the depth of incense evoke the spaces enclosed by the abbey’s stone walls and arches.

For Bôharas, Nicolas Bonneville turned to the Selman stables in Morocco. The wind rattling the wooden doors and the Arabian horses within provided the scene. Cool cardamom opens onto a core of leather, with woods and amber adding warmth. Resins and incense give the abbey its character, while leather brings the stables to mind. The place determines which impression the perfumer brings to the fore.

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