First Light

- Lindyl Crabb

FRENCH MONARCHS HAVE A THING for Cire Trudon candles. Iconic emperor Napoléon Bonaparte presented one to his son on the day he was born, while the last king of France, Louis XVI, continued to order them even as the French Revolution descended upon Versailles. But before they enchanted the halls of grand cathedrals and the courts of doomed rulers, these candles were sold from a shop on rue Saint-Honoré owned by Claude Trudon. Up until that point, people could only buy candles made from rather foul animal fat, but Trudon used filtered beeswax that he exposed to sunlight, turning the wax pure white. Years later, when Claude’s descendant Jérôme bought t