![\"Marseille](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/ca0109ceda38279fedaf2864d1bb1c6b642e755758e829578272290af7cffb63.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
<\/p>\nWhen the ends of a short piece of dough are pointed and a cut is made down the middle, it takes the shape of a small boat. The navette is a baked biscuit popular in Provence, especially in Marseille. Besides dry biscuits scented with orange blossom, there are also softer versions. The story of a boat and holy women is deeply rooted in the region. The same word also has histories connected with the weaver\u2019s shuttle and with the diamond-shaped biscuits of Albi.<\/p>\n
Orange flower water or lemon zest is added to flour, sugar and fat, giving the dough a floral fragrance rather than the sourness of fruit juice. Some methods use vegetable fat and others use butter and eggs. For Edda Onorato\u2019s Proven\u00e7al version, butter, sugar and lemon zest are mixed together; then eggs, milk, flower water if desired, and finally flour are quickly combined.<\/p>\n
The dough is chilled for at least one hour, rolled into a log and cut into short pieces. Each piece is flattened slightly in the middle and pinched at the ends. A knife cut is made down the centre, leaving the edges uncut, and the navettes are baked without being allowed to brown deeply. With this method, they are slightly soft straight from the oven and become light and crisp once cooled. Instead of a round cutter, each one is shaped by hand with pointed ends and a cut down the middle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Marseille navettes in various flavours arranged in a basket. Photo: Cyrille Valota, 2009-08-19, location unknown. Original image<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version from the source site. It is unknown whether the image was processed when first published; no additional processing for this use.<\/p>\n The Dictionnaire des r\u00e9gionalismes de France suggests that the word may have been applied to the biscuit because its shape resembles a weaver\u2019s shuttle. It also suggests that in Provence the meaning may later have been reinterpreted as \u201cboat\u201d to fit the story of the holy women. A 1785 Occitan dictionary also lists both the shuttle and a biscuit with that shape. Even in Provence, where the boat legend is popular, one explanation traces the name to the tool that carries thread across the loom.<\/p>\n One story told in Marseille is that Marie Jacob\u00e9, Marie Salom\u00e9 and Sarah fled persecution and sailed from Palestine to the Camargue in a boat without a rudder. Aveyrous, the founder of Four des Navettes, is said to have modelled the biscuit\u2019s shape on that boat. Another account is set in the 13th century: a statue of the Virgin Mary washed ashore at Lacydon, the old port, and the port\u2019s craftsmen received it as a sign of protection. In Marseille, the small boat shape is therefore linked to different legends about things that came across the sea, such as the boat carrying the holy women and the statue of the Virgin that washed ashore.<\/p>\n At Chandeleur in Marseille, people eat navettes instead of cr\u00eapes. A procession takes place with the Black Virgin of the Abbey of Saint-Victor and green candles, and the ovens of a nearby bakery are also blessed. Four des Navettes is said to have been founded in 1781, and several families have carried on its work.<\/p>\n The bakery\u2019s current information describes the day in this order: a procession at dawn, the blessing of candles, the sea and the city in front of the abbey, and the blessing of the ovens and navettes at 8 a.m. There is also a good-luck custom: people keep one blessed navette and a green candle until the following year, then burn the candle and eat the navette at the next Chandeleur.<\/p>\n Even in Marseille, some navettes are hard and dry, some are fairly soft and some are closer to brioche. Aix-en-Provence also has handmade, flower-scented navettes. The town alone does not tell you whether a navette contains eggs or which fat it uses, or how hard it is.<\/p>\n Hard navettes are eaten as they are, warmed slightly to soften them again, or dipped in coffee. They may also be served with orange jam or Chantilly. Dipping them in a drink, or warming them and serving them with cream, changes the texture of the hard, dry dough.<\/p>\n Paul Bret, a pastry chef in Le Castellet, flavours his navettes with orange flower water and uses a little more butter than traditional navettes contain, so they are not too hard. They are among the biscuits his shop sells by weight. They show how a maker can keep the local fragrance while adjusting the bite.<\/p>\n Navettes albigeoises are navettes from the Albi area, made from sabl\u00e9<\/a> dough cut into diamond shapes. They are flavoured with candied citron and topped with a whole almond and sugar. One legend compares the diamond shape to a weaver\u2019s shuttle and says it comes from a weaving tool used by the Cathars. It is not clear whether this biscuit was already made in the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n The regional dictionary traces this biscuit to Louis Rieux\u2019s 1913 cookbook and to letters written during the First World War by soldiers from southwestern France. Some letters ask families to send sabl\u00e9s with candied fruit from home, and others thank them. Separate from the medieval stories, these early 20th-century records show the biscuits being sent from home.<\/p>\n Paul Bret<\/strong>: A pastry chef who makes biscuits in Le Castellet in southern France.<\/p> Louis Rieux<\/strong>: The author of a 1913 cookbook on the cooking of the Albi area.<\/p> Aveyrous<\/strong>: The founder named in the story that Four des Navettes was founded in 1781.<\/p> Orange flower water<\/strong>: A fragrant water made from orange blossoms.<\/p> Edda Onorato<\/strong>: A cookbook author who writes about French and Italian cooking. She lives in Aix-en-Provence and has published a recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) for Proven\u00e7al navettes.<\/p> Chandeleur<\/strong>: A Christian feast day on February 2, also called Candlemas. In France, people traditionally eat cr\u00eapes on this day.<\/p> Chantilly<\/strong>: Whipped cream, usually flavoured with sugar or similar ingredients.<\/p> Sabl\u00e9<\/strong>: A biscuit dough made with fat to give a crumbly texture, or a biscuit made from that dough.<\/p> Citron<\/strong>: A citrus fruit with a thick peel. The peel is candied or used in other ways.<\/p> Marie Jacob\u00e9 \/ Marie Salom\u00e9 \/ Sarah<\/strong>: Figures in the Proven\u00e7al legend of the holy women\u2019s arrival. Their names are still honoured in local pilgrimages.<\/p> Cathars<\/strong>: A Christian religious movement in medieval southern France. The story linking the Albi biscuit to weaving is a later local legend.<\/p> Shuttle<\/strong>: A weaving tool used to pass the weft thread across the loom.<\/p> Four des Navettes \u201cChandeleur\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The bakery\u2019s own description of the February 2 procession and blessings, and of the custom of keeping one navette and a green candle for a year. It does not mention a tradition of twelve navettes for the twelve months.<\/p>\n<\/li> Municipality of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer \u201cL\u2019histoire\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The legend of the boat carrying Marie Jacob\u00e9, Marie Salom\u00e9 and Sarah. Used as a source for the story as told locally.<\/p>\n<\/li> Les navettes de Marseille | Office de Tourisme de Marseille<\/a> \u2014 Small boats and floral fragrance; the February 2 event; the Black Virgin and green candles; the blessing of the ovens; several origin legends.<\/p>\n<\/li> Four des navettes – Tradition Marseillaise<\/a> \u2014 1781, the oven, and three families who carried on the bakery.<\/p>\n<\/li> Sachet de 12 navettes<\/a> \u2014 Wheat flour, sugar and vegetable fat; lemon and orange blossom flavouring; warming \/ jam \/ Chantilly.<\/p>\n<\/li> Navettes proven\u00e7ales – Recette biscuits – Un d\u00e9jeuner de soleil<\/a> \u2014 Recipe with butter and eggs; milk or water and optional flower water; flour mixed in quickly; 1 hour of resting; shaping into logs with pointed ends and a cut down the middle; pale baked colour.<\/p>\n<\/li> La Navette, biscuit embl\u00e9matique de la Provence MyProvence<\/a> \u2014 Hard, soft and brioche-style navettes in Marseille; the local custom of dipping them in coffee.<\/p>\n<\/li> Albigeois : Carte du terroir, produits locaux et sp\u00e9cialit\u00e9s r\u00e9gionales | L’OPT<\/a> \u2014 Albi\u2019s diamond-shaped sabl\u00e9s; whole almonds and sugar; candied citron; shuttle shape.<\/p>\n<\/li> Navettes proven\u00e7ales & biscuits artisanaux \u2013 Aix-en-Provence \u2013 Les Navettes Aixoises<\/a> \u2014 Handmade, flower-scented navettes from Aix-en-Provence.<\/p>\n<\/li>![\"Navettes](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/d5baa9ffc13f6de074da4eed3fa91d3b9e0e1ae161bd6f032f3d84be010fa6e7.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nThe name: the holy women\u2019s boat and the weaver\u2019s shuttle<\/h2>\n
Chandeleur on February 2 and the blessing of navettes<\/h2>\n
![\"Shopfront](\"https:\/\/ezb966kqson.exactdn.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/sweetlore-photos-20261028\/49321603c0daad3dab321b605566a82f42b8be98809fcffe50de9d0b6f831ef0.jpg?strip=all&quality=90&webp=92&avif=55&w=1920\")
\nDifferences in hardness, and pairing with drinks and cream<\/h2>\n
Albi\u2019s diamond-shaped sabl\u00e9s with almonds and citron<\/h2>\n
Glossary<\/h2>\n
References<\/h2>\n
![Original image<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Navettedemarseille.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Navettes_des_Alpes_proven%C3%A7ales.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Four_des_navettes_Marseille_2015.JPG\"){kind=link}