The first Christmas I was in Paris, which now seems very long ago, a friend of ours showed up for a Christmas party chez nous with a huge box of marrons glacés, which I had never seen before. There must have been fifty or sixty of the candied chestnuts in the box. The other guests oohed and aahed and I felt much as Europeans or Americans feel when presented with such Chinese delicacies as shark-fin soup or sea cucumber (which are often served at Chinese banquets so that the Chinese, not the foreigners, can have them...). I don't even remember what happened to the box-- I know we didn't eat the marrons. I can only hope someone else got them. Marrons last a pretty long time, although not at my house.
Oh! how I wish I could have that box now! It must have cost the equivalent of a hundred euros. Marrons glacés are such a luxury that you mainly see them during the holiday season, wrapped in gold foil with prices to match. I have developed a taste for them and greedily buy my local bakery's brisures de marrons (pieces that fall off accidentally when they're making them), which are still quite expensive.
I was reminded of this when I saw an American girl at the airport today being given one by a French friend who didn't tell her what it was. "Eeew! What is this?" she said.
