A fragrance named after a fictional thief? Possibly Jean-Paul Guerlain‘s last fragrance? A leathery oriental? I had to try Guerlain Arsène Lupin Dandy.

While I waited for my decant to arrive, I boned up on Arsène Lupin. Maurice LeBlanc created Arsène Lupin in 1905 as the antihero of a series of short stories. Lupin is a sybaritic thief with a keen eye for furniture, paintings, jewels, and pretty ladies. He plans his heists more for the challenge than the loot. In one typically Lupinesque caper, he writes to a Baron who lives in a heavily guarded mansion on a rocky island in the middle of a river. He instructs the Baron to deliver certain of his treasures to him by a particular date or he’ll steal them and more. (He adds not to bother with the larger Watteau in the dining room, because it’s a fake, just in case the Baron isn’t aware.) The clincher is that Lupin writes the letter from jail. The Baron refuses Lupin’s request, and even hires protection for the night Lupin threatens to break in. Sorry Baron. Hope you were insured…

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