A widely held belief is that Catherine de" Medici introduced the macaron to the tables of the royal court of France in the 16th Century, although food historian Marie Josèphe Moncorgé disputes this. "This is just a legend," she said. "In general, pastries with almonds are often of Arabic origin, they then moved on to Catalonia and Italy before arriving organically in France." Given the Italian origin of the word and the existence of recipes describing a macaron-like pastry brought to Sicily by Arab soldiers before the 13th Century, this seems likely.