This almond-paste delicacy with its sugar icing is world renowned.
The little boat-shaped pastries were given out at the Notre-Dame-de-la-Sed church in Aix-en-Provence every September 1st, celebrating a vow made to ward off the plague in 1630. The Archbishop of Aix chanted the Latin "Venite ad Calicem" during the handout, and the Provencals translated this to "Venes toui i calissoun", or "Venez tous au Calisson" (Come, everybody, to Calisson). And the name stuck.
The right photo shows a calisson moulding machine in the Confiseris Bremond of Aix-en-Provence.
|