la poire doyenne du comice..

..and what a beauty she is.

Our local butcher sells fine meat and local produce picked from the family's gardens and orchards. Today's offerings included bags of pears picked from a 100 year old pear tree.
They're Comice pears,' said Pep. 'When the family bought the property the tree was only a few years old.'

Meanwhile off to Google and what a fine story this pear does have.
So much so that in 1894 she was 'appointed by the Journal of Horticulture of London "the best Poire the World" and is commemorated on a plaque at the entrance to the garden of the Museum of Fine Arts of Angers.


Described in the Pear Encyclopedia as  large, stately and vigourous  but slow coming into bearing and here in the hills she's still growing and bearing beautiful fruit a hundred years on.