Francis Kurkdjian may well make you swoon, and not just because the former ballet dancer and perfumer is the epitome of masculine Parisian style.

His description of what went into fragrances worn by the regal occupants of Versailles is stomach churning.

"Civet smells like cat pee," Kurkdjian says. "Musk smells like dog shit a little bit. Musk is very heavy, faecal. You have to think about being in a zoo."

Ambergris, in comparison, is merely intensely fishy, although its source – the digestive system of the sperm whale – is far from edifying.

Other royal scents of the era smelt like fatty, greasy hair or were "strong and dark and dirty", he says. "There were many things they used that were disgusting."

Kurkdjian recognises, however, that visitors to the National Gallery of Australia's summer blockbuster Versailles: Treasures from the Palace may be more delicate in disposition.

Happily, the master perfumer opted to create an orange blossom scent for the show.

"We think it appropriate for a modern viewer to be exposed to orange blossom rather than to fragrances that are not only much stronger but would be more of a culture shock," he says, chatting to Life & Leisure in the immaculate white headquarters of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, overlooking the rue Etienne Marcel in Paris' first arrondissement.

The Canberra exhibition will feature more than 130 paintings, sculptures, tapestries and furniture from the royal palace, whose most notorious residents were the Sun King – Louis XIV – and Marie-Antoinette.

Back in Paris, Kurkdjian opens a custom-made "fragrance trunk" filled with tiny test tubes containing more palatable ingredients like vanilla, sandalwood and nutmeg.

He also shows me tiny lumps of ambergris (its heady aroma mercifully dulled with age), which was used to extend the life of scents but has largely been replaced by synthetic ingredients.

"As a perfumer, there is nothing I don't like," he says. "I'm in love with anything when it helps me to create a perfume I have in my mind."

Kurkdjian shows me a scanned page from the book L'Art du Parfumeur, published in 1801 by Jean-Louis Fargeon, a supplier of fragrances to Marie-Antoinette.

He scrolls to a page containing a recipe for "spirit of orange flower", an inspiration for the scent that will waft through the National Gallery of Australia.

"It comes from the bitter orange tree," he says. "You can use it to make marmalade."

Louis XIV earned the nickname le doux fleurant (the sweet flowery one) because of his passion for perfumes, which he used for medicinal reasons as well as vanity.

Perfume making was propelled by advances in distillation during the Enlightenment in the 18th century, according to Saskia Wilson-Brown, founder of the Institute for Art and Olfaction.

"And just as Louis XIV and his court spurred innovation in the arts, their demand for scent spurred perfume makers to new heights of creativity," she says.

Kurkdjian says the "olfactory decibel was super loud" at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV.

Yet in his later years he was afflicted by allergies and could tolerate only orange blossom.

Although the ingredients are similar, modern methods of distillation will alter Kurkdjian's orange blossom from the scent enjoyed by Louis XIV.

"Now we have the metric system, we can measure everything," he says. "We can control the temperature. All the machines are very sophisticated."

In contrast, Fargeon and his fellow perfumers relied on guesswork: "You put your finger in it, you touch it and go: 'Oh, that's good.' "

Kurkdjian also wants to add "a little dirtiness" to his fragrance for the NGA: "To bring that old dust. Not rotten, but to make it seem old."

He is no Walter White, however. "I'm very bad," he says. "I don't know anything about chemistry."

But he adds: "You don't ask a painter to understand the chemistry of the colours."

The 47-year-old Kurkdjian has a long association with Versailles, studying at the ISIPCA, a school "dedicated to perfume, cosmetics and flavours" founded in 1970 by Jean-Jacques Guerlain.

Kurkdjian, whose Armenian ancestors fled the Ottoman Empire during World War I, would visit the gardens surrounding the palace to escape his student garret in town.

"With my friends, we would go to Versailles, sit on the grass and learn about perfume," he says.

At the same time, Kurkdjian studied at the ballet school in Versailles and performed in shows at the palace for many years.

Louis XIV would surely have approved of his agility.

Despite his reputation as a warmonger, the king was a ballet enthusiast whose birth was celebrated with dance. As a youngster, he danced in many ballet works himself, including as Apollo, the sun god, in Le Ballet de la Nuit. 

In 2004, Kurkdjian recreated a "blend of floral notes" worn by Marie-Antoinette – jasmine, iris, orange blossom and rose.

The queen of France's preference for light floral scents marked a dramatic change in taste from the powerful fragrances made for Louis XIV.

The shifting taste in perfume at the royal court was mirrored in changes to the art, food and fashion between the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI, husband to Marie-Antoinette.

Kurkdjian has also created perfumed installations at Versailles using hundreds of candles to produce a powdery aroma of iris, rose and spice and pumped fruity flavoured bubbles over the famed Latona fountain.

His nose is insured for a "couple of million euros". He corrects himself: "Several. More than a couple."

The list of activities he shuns is lengthy.

"No boxing first of all," he says. "No cycling in cities of more than 10,000 people … It's better not to sit in the front seat of a car. No skydiving, no scuba diving, no skiing.
 

"What else? No drugs of course."

A cold or the flu is less of an issue, he says, given the perfumer relies more on the brain than nostrils: "The process is totally mental. It comes from the brain."

The writer travelled to France with assistance from the National Gallery of Australia.

NEED TO KNOW

Versailles: Treasures from the Palace is at the National Gallery of Australia from December 9 to April 17, 2017.