Born the son of a sea captain in Fécamp,[REF] Le Grand discovered, in 1863, an old grimoire in the library of the abbey of Fécamp containing medicinal and herbal recipes collected by the monks of the abbey.
Inheriting a habit of eclecticism from his father, Alexandre Le Grand raised the Palais Bénédictine, a building whose architectural style was a mélange of Gothic, Renaissance, and art nouveau, and which in 1888 he made into the headquarters of the Bénédictine company.