 The Madame Falgoux Legacy
The story of Madame Falgoux begins in a Tunica Indian village near present day New Orleans with the birth of Marie Castan, in 1719. Little is known of her early life except that by 1736 she was married to
Surgeon-Major Louis-Marcel Falgoux de Beaumont, a military physician, who had received his commission to settle in the Louisiana colony direct from King Louis XV. Dr. Falgoux was descended from a family of wealthy candle merchants and had been educated at Montpelier the best medical school in France.
Life in early New Orleans was one of extreme hardship beset with disease and hard scrabble living.
Under rigorous conditions Dr. Falgoux treated patients for more than 30 years. He was assisted by his wife Marie-(Madame) Falgoux whom he had taught much of his medical trade. After his passing she continued to see patients using a combination of then accepted medicine and herbal folk remedies. A generation or so later this style of healing combined with a spiritual element, and its practitioners became known, in the Cajun-French culture, as “Tretiers” or in English slang “Treaters”.
In 2001, Louisiana native, Andrea Falgout-Hirt, a direct descendant of Marie Falgoux, opened “Madame Falgoux’s Aromatherapy Emporium” at 624 Royal St., in New Orleans storied French Quarter. She specialized in hand crafted candles, soaps, and Aromatherapy oils. The shop had a family flair with Andrea’s mother and grandmother crafting many of the soaps and candles. She was in the process of expanding her shop when the events following Hurricane Katrina forced her to evacuate New Orleans.
Andrea arrived in Martha’s Vineyard where her sister Deneen has lived for the last decade. Deneen (Falgout) Convery is a former Montessori School Teacher who has baccalaureate degrees in both History and French from the University of New Orleans and the Université de l’etat à Mons, in Belgium.
They have reopened Madame Falgoux’s , on the Vineyard, offering the same quality product line that was exclusive to New Orleans plus an expanded line of new fragrance oils, unique handcrafted jewelry and fine teas. |
