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| La Cornuelle, a Charentais tradition for Palm Sunday (Rameaux) |
Welcome to another Lazy Sundayin France, where today I have a tasty treat lined up for you.
I lost an hour of my precious
sleep last night, and even if the reason does now mean we are on Central
European Summer Time, something sweet from the village boulangerie was just
what I needed today, to keep my energy levels up. As luck would have it, today is
Palm Sunday, or Rameaux in French, the
last Sunday in Lent and in our area that means la cornuelle, a Charentais speciality made by boulangers, just for today. In
terms of food, fun and French culture, it has to be one of my favourite days
and I still can’t believe it took me 11 years to discover it.
La cornuelle is a triangle shaped buttery biscuit, with
fluted edges and a hole in the middle, that is decorated with aniseed sweets. The
triangular shape represents The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit and traditionally
it was sold at the entrance to church on Palm Sunday, where a sprig of box (another
traditional French symbol of Palm Sunday) would have been placed in the hole. However,
a few years ago a puff pastry version appeared at our boulangerie, deliciously filled
with strawberries and whipped cream, so I couldn’t wait to see what would be on
offer this year.
It was with much excitement
that Pierrette, my French neighbour, and I made our Sunday morning pilgrimage
to the boulangerie and I spied the tray of decorated biscuits with relief. We
chatted with Bernadette (madame la boulangère) about the French Palm Sunday and
Easter traditions and then the other story behind this Easter treat, dating
back to the Middle Ages, came up. For those whose beliefs are more Pagan than
Christian, and with spring signifying new life, la cornuelle is believed to be triangle shaped to represent the
female reproductive organs and is a sign of fertility. This tickled the three
of us, two middle-aged mothers and a sprightly just-turned 78-year-old, no end,
before Pierrette and I pretty much cleared her out of cornuelles. I do hope she had another tray out back as there is no
way Pierrette or I can do much to increase the population of the village at our
ages.
On that, I shall leave you to
enjoy your Sunday while I pour myself a coffee and enjoy my lady-garden biscuit
cornuelle. If you would like to be
involved in a future #LazySundayinFrance post, maybe you are a writer, a
blogger or run an independent business in France and have something you think would
be ideal to be included, please do get in touch.
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