Yes, it is mostly true, but the actual story is a little different from “Louis Vuitton’s grandson tried to buy a forest in France.”  The man you’re thinking of was Patrick-Louis Vuitton, a direct descendant of Louis Vuitton and a prominent French veneur (hunter who practices chasse à courre, or mounted stag hunting).

So, recently, my daughter had the bright idea to open a Sephora franchise location.   Of course there is no such thing, so it was a short lived dream.   I had to remind her that Sephora is not a publicly traded company, it’s owned by a wholly-owned private subsidiary of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, a French luxury goods conglomerate.  LVMH (acquired Sephora in July 1997 for $262 million) Public Ticker: LVMH shares trade on Euronext Paris (Ticker: MC) and as an American Depositary Receipt in the U.S. (Ticker: LVMUY.)   It’s all part of Vuitton’s empire, which the family sold.   My daughter mostly doesn’t care, she was on the hunt for Clinique’s cult-classic Black Honey (often referred to by fans mixing up its “Almost Lipstick” line or dark berry look) has been worn and loved by many celebrities over the decades, including Emilia Clarke, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, and Iris Law.  And, she loves the Sephora Collection Totally Juicy Lip Tint is a high-shine, hydrating gel lip stain priced around $15 to $28. It features a glossy, non-sticky, jelly-like texture infused with coconut extract and squalane that provides up to 12 hours of moisture and a long-lasting tint and includes colors like 01 Sweet.  They own a lot of other brands from Hennessy to Dior, and everything in between.

But, anyways, back to the forest and Vuitton.

  • In 2003, Patrick-Louis Vuitton sought to secure exclusive hunting rights for stag hunting in the 5,400-hectare Forêt des Andaines in Normandy’s Orne department.
  • Rather than buying the forest, he reportedly bid €150,000 per year for 12 years to the French forestry authority, the ONF, for the hunting rights. That was about four times the normal rate.
  • The forest itself was state-owned, so he wasn’t purchasing the land. He was effectively trying to control the hunting concession, which in the world of chasse à courre is a very substantial distinction.
  • His équipage, La Roirie, hunted there with a pack of hounds.
  • The arrangement generated considerable controversy because competing hunting crews were effectively shut out. His hunting rights were subsequently challenged in court, although he ultimately prevailed in the litigation arising from the 2004 adjudication.
  • There was a separate and rather spectacular dispute involving Laurence Dourdin, whose private property bordered the forest. Vuitton’s hounds and hunters repeatedly crossed onto her property while pursuing deer. He was eventually fined over an incident involving the pursuit and killing of a stag on private land.

And there’s an especially good historical detail: Patrick-Louis Vuitton wasn’t merely someone who occasionally went hunting. He became sufficiently prominent in French vénerie that the disputes surrounding his hunting activities were covered by Le Monde and other French publications.  So the accurate version of the tale would be:

Patrick-Louis Vuitton, a direct descendant of Louis Vuitton, attempted to obtain exclusive stag-hunting rights over the 5,400-hectare Forêt des Andaines by offering an extraordinarily high bid to the French forestry authority. He did not attempt to purchase the forest itself.

There is also a Hubert-Louis Vuitton, another descendant of the Vuitton family, who is heavily involved in French hunting organizations, so it’s quite easy for the family stories to get tangled. Humanity apparently decided one Vuitton involved in French hunting or la chasse à courre wasn’t confusing enough.