A different liqueur fills each colourful textured ball of white chocolate or chardon lorrain, made in Nancy sinc the 19th century.
Their shape evokes the thistle symbol of Lorraine introduced by René I, the Angevin king of Naples; when his son René II defeated Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in the Battle of Nancy in 1477, he adopted the slogan to go with the thistle: ‘Ne toquès mi, je poins’ (Don’t touch me, I sting).
The papaline d’Avignon is similar.
Image by chardonslorrains