With an outside made of almond paste rolled in sugar and an inside of chocolate ganache lightly flavored with curacao, these exquisite candies are sure to please. A specialty of Lyons, coussins are a reminder of the city's once bustling silk industry: each candy is shaped like a miniature silk cushion. Voisin, a chocolatier-confiseur in Lyons since 1897, invented the coussin and is the exclusive manufacturer. (Because of FDA restrictions on colorings, our coussins are white and not green.)

Lyons' silks are still prized by leading fashion designers throughout the world. Visitors to Lyons can still see the "ateliers de canuts," the workshops where the silk workers once plied their trade, on the Croix Rousse, the steep hill to the north of Lyons.