Traditional French Navettes Cookies

This little boat-shaped cookie is a full-fledged symbol for the city of Marseille, the capital of Provence. Throughout the city there are countless little bakeries with shelves filled with fragrant Navettes cookies. Many of them date back centuries and have become sought after tourist attractions.

The ingredient that characterized original Provence Navettes is orange flower water. Nowadays, even in Marseille, it's possible to savor Navettes flavored with different aromas, lemon being the most popular.

The ancient Biscuiterie de Provence, still run by the Bédouin family in a little village of the beautiful Drôme Provençale region of southern France, bakes perfect traditional Navettes using the finest ingredients, delicious churn butter, and authentic orange flower water.

History Notes

For centuries the origin of Navettes cookies has been associated with the catholic Candlemas celebration on the second of February at Marseille abbey of Saint-Victor. For this religious celebration people in Marseilles bake Navettes — in other parts of France for the same celebration people bake crêpes. Two different accounts explain the unique shape of the famous cookie: it is believed that Navettes are baked in the shape of a boat (navette) to commemorate the late seventeenth century arrival of Saint Marie on the shore of Marseille in a boat without sails or oars. The second account sees the origin in the coming ashore of a Virgin Mary built in polychrome wood. In both instances there is an association with the sea and coming ashore.