coing

The coing (quince) is not as popular as it used to be, judging by the old trees along the edge of the fields that no one seems to care much about. Many grow in the eastern part of the France. Ripe in late autumn, they are added to ratafia or made into jelly or quince paste (pâte de coing, often one of Les Treize Desserts served at Christmas in Provence).

Sometimes they are known as the poire de Cydonie or pomme de Cydon. Cydon (Kydonia) was the Minoan name for Chania, Crete, where the fruit was first recorded in Linear B tablets 4,000 years ago (kydonia is also the word for quince in Greek).

Quince sweets

In the 16th century in Baume-les-Dames near Besançon, there was a dispute over funds between the abbess and the bishop that became so heated that she threatened to hit him over the head with her cross (although some versions of the story say she actually did!).