L'Heure Attendue (1946)
by Jean Patou

Absolutely gorgeous soft, slightly sweet, powdery, woody perfume! An absolute gem from Patou, so far my favorite of Ma Collection ... though I've only smelled about half of them. At this point, would make a much better masculine than feminine. And the soft sandalwood drydown is the best part.

Another gorgeous entry in the Ma Collection from the House of Patou, L'Heure Attendue is stunning, and, with all due respect to the reviewer below, I do not find it to smell dated at all. Released in 1946 to celebrate the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation, L'Heure Attendue is a wearable, surprisingly modern spicy-woodsy oriental composition. There are shades of Almeras's Chaldee in the heart, and the beginning is almost a foreshadowing of Kerleo's later 1000 (Mille). L'Heure Attendue is a fairly sober fragrance. It opens with some creamy florals and then smoothly develops into a spicy-woodsy drydown that is as wearable today as it would have been 60 years ago. Notes are listed below so I will not repeat them. L'Heure Attendue strikes me as the Youth Dew or Opium of the '40s. If you ever have an opportunity, try this one. It deserves to be loved and savored by another generation, but sadly has been discontinued.

I had a bottle of L'Heure Attendue years ago and remember it as a "fizzy" woody oriental -- perhaps it had aldehydes that didn't agree with me. (Jan Moran's "Fabulous Fragrances lists the notes of this 1946 invention as [top] lily of the valley, geranium, lilac; [heart] ylang-ylang, jasmine, rose, opopanax; [base] mysore sandalwood, vanilla, patchouli.) But a knowledgeable salesperson told me that fragrance used to be worn lower on the body, so that the scent would waft up and the overall effect would be softer than if it were applied near the earlobes and throat (for example). This trick seems to work for scents that might otherwise be too aggressive. But although the notes themselves don't seem particularly odd, the combination/proportions may make L'Heure Attendue one of those vintage concoctions that shows its age.