Les Anis de Flavigny

What you will see

On weekdays a guide leads small groups into the workshop, where aniseeds roll in copper pans and slowly gather thin layers of sugar syrup. You then see the packing room, where the sweets go into their tins. You can also visit on your own the small museum, the old workshops and the crypt, with the chapels of Sainte-Reine and Notre-Dame-des-Piliers. The visit ends in the shop, where you can taste flavours such as violet, rose and liquorice.

History

The abbey of Saint-Pierre was founded in 719. The Duc de Saint-Simon wrote that Louis XIV liked to suck aniseed sweets, which he kept in a small pocket box. After the monks left in 1792, eight people of Flavigny kept making the sweets, mostly in the former abbey. In 1896 a Monsieur Galimard bought the abbey and brought all the aniseed workshops together under one roof.

In 1923 Jean Troubat took over the business. He sold the sweets in station vending machines, Paris department stores and cinemas, and by 1928 was making 80 tonnes a year. His son Nicolas, in charge from 1965 to 1990, raised production to 250 tonnes. Nicolas's daughter Catherine has run the company since 1990. Excavations from 1956 to 1960 uncovered the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Piliers beside the Carolingian crypt of Saint Reine.