Switch Editions? Copy Share URL. Channel: The Modern Trobadors. X Are you the publisher? Claim or contact us about this channel. Remove ADS. Viewing all articles. Browse latest View live. Arkadie Kouguell's Playel Piano, circa Photo: Tatiana Kouguell-Hoell. Pleyel pianos may no longer be made but, ironically, the digital sample of a Pleyel grand piano will live on! The desserts are set out after Midnight Mass, all at once, on three layers of white table cloths that represent the Holy Trinity.
People who live in Provence know that everyone should take a piece of each dessert. Look for walnuts or hazelnuts representing the Augustinians, almonds for the Carmelites, raisins for the Dominicans, and dried figs for the Franciscans. The fresh fruit platter is likely to consist of tangerines, oranges, apples, pears, and grapes. The sweets always include white and black nougat: nougat blanc and nougat noir au miel. Said to symbolize good and evil—or, alternatively, to represent the shift from long bright days to long dark days as marked by the winter solstice—the classic nougat hails from Montelimar where it is AOC protected.
In some locales, this may be served with a jam made from the grapes harvested from local vineyards. Finally, if you are lucky, as the title of this article suggests, calissons and croquants may be part of the thirteen desserts, too. This three-part series begins with calissons.
There were once more calissonnieres than fountains on this famous plane tree-lined boulevard. My favorite, still there today, is Maison Bechard, a confiserie and patisserie that is impossible to walk past without drooling. The glistening white icing looked luscious and the pastry upon which the icing set looked soft but not at all chewy—visions of pastry akin to fruitcakes vanished from my head. The pastry does have a consistency similar to marzipan but that is as far as that likeness goes—the calisson pastry is bursting with flavors of candied melon and orange peel as well as almonds.
It was love at first bite. A portrait of Jeanne de Laval. We were all smiling…. Legend has it that Reine Jeanne, a young woman in her 20s, was not happy becoming the second wife of the 45 year-old-ish King, an arrangement made by her father. He was successful with the young queen and with generations of calisson lovers since then. There are other stories about the origins of this celebrated sweet.
