Wednesday, November 01, 2006

SALON DU CHOCOLAT

These HUGE posters for the Paris chocolate show were EVERYWHERE! All over the Metro stations, where ever you looked in Paris. When my wine friend,Chuck House, down in a small village in the Languedoc, mentioned he was going to the choco show (with me), they all oooed and awed!
I was lucky to attend opening night held at the Porte de Versailles, a convention center much like the New York Javits. There were chocolate purveyors from all over France, many small family-run operations, as well as some of the big "couture" names... The high stacks of chocolate everywhere amazed me!
These stacks are from Pralus - a wonderful 10 pack of world-wide chocolate. This weighs in at 500g - 1.2 pounds to us :O
There's a mini version too and they'll be at the New York show again this year. Visit their website if you want a purely
visual treat.
This beautiful stack of pretty boxes was from the La Maison du Chocolat display. Their counter was made up of window displays, each more inventive than the next... A visit to their website will show you the creation of their crazy chocolate outfit for the fashion show. Some asked if there was sushi in Paris - everywhere you turned is a Japanese restaurant. And at the chocolate show, Madame Setsuko had these faux sushi-like chocolates, actually green tea ganache. Delicious! They will be in New York too.
So on to the chocolate fashion show! This went on and on and you could see nothing unless you viewed it from these big screens. Choco chefs were standing on ladders just to get a peek..
I did that thing where you hold your camera over your head and click and pray and I got something! But mostly I wondered the empty show while the others gaped in awe. The chocolate displays kept me very awed.
And this is the source of all this wonderment. The almighty cocoa bean. I got to taste a fresh white bean straight from the pod at the Mexican stand...interesting. Lots more to come. This is just an amuse-bouche (appetizer) of what I saw in Paris. I'm off to the pool so keep tuned :)

19 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:59 AM

    oh, how cool is that! to go to a chocolate convention! and even to go to a fashion show!!! i'll have one of those beautiful pralus stacks...probably more than one...

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  2. What a sight of beauty...all of that chocolate.

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  3. Anonymous9:58 AM

    Reading Victoria Finlay's "Color" A Natural History of the Palette. On page 16 she writes, "Colormen first appeared in the mid-seventeenth century preparing canvases, supplying pigments and making brushes. In France some of them were originally luxury goods grocers, selling exotica like chocolate and vanilla alongside the cochineal, but most of them quickly turned to full-time art supplying." This must have been you in a previous life!
    -N

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  4. Anonymous10:51 AM

    Glad you're back. Grateful for all you share, c'est inestimable.
    Kris

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  5. Anonymous11:24 AM

    OH my what decadence! A chocolate lovers dream come true! Only in Paris does one find edible fashion...

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  6. Anonymous1:12 PM

    I'm licking my computer screen right now.....and almost feel the taste ......

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  7. Can one have a voyouristic (sp) chocolate attack? Must be so -- because I'm having one!! I HAVE TO HAVE SOME CHOCOLATE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  8. Anonymous2:37 PM

    Glad to see you and your creativity had a safe trip!
    I was thinking of you, walking the sts. of Paris, as I was hiking the cliffs of Cornwall!
    s.jerseyboy

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  9. I'll have one of those beautifully wrapped stacks please! And the fashions, so creative. Will look at these photos again and again...Yumm! Nel

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  10. Anonymous5:02 PM

    Dear Carol,
    What a beautiful"Chocoartistic"photos.You'd have to take some artistic name,like"Carol g.Godiva":D ;D
    Do you go to the Marché d St.Germain pool??I used to go to it,maybe you too.
    I hope you don´t think I´m a bizarre girl 'cause my invitation,I know that for a Newyorker mind is not a rational thing...but I´m Spanish and a do some things moved by instinct(passion or whatever you'd like to call it...c'est simple comme un bonjour).Alors je te quitte.Bonsoir!!
    Smila

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  11. Anonymous8:21 PM

    Carol,
    So jealous you got to go - it looks like heaven to me! Did you save me something???:)

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  12. Ok you got me drooling and wanting chocolate. i can tell it was awesome and you get to do it agian in New York

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  13. Anita, as my mom used to say when we were little, "I saved you something in my eyetooth.."
    I did bring you back P.Hermé's new Fall catalog. I'll send it off tout suite.

    toni I think New York will be different..not the same massive quantities of bonbons or piles of chocolate as I remember from last year's show..we shall see. But definitely more tasting.

    Smila, yes in the past I've loved going to that pool, but this trip there was not enough time malheureusement..and I planned my hotel so I would be nearby. I had to stay in and paint instead :)

    nel, plenty more pictures to come and details of the chocolate gowns too!

    Ulla, there's a chocolate fashion show in NYC too..maybe it's the same outfits. I'll be sure to check and report back :)

    I better do today's post
    cya soon!

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  14. Wow, what could be more interesting than a chocolate show! Were there many chocolately smells wafting around?

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  15. carol, this is a 5000 calorie post with fashion to boot. lovely use of the camera (you did good above your head!) and well, can't wait to see a watercolor of those lemons and boxes. wouldn't that be a study in contrast? thanks!

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  16. I think I just gained 3 pounds reading this post! It's fabulous. Having spent a couple years living in Europe many years ago, I feel inspired to return.

    :)

    Susan

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  17. How amazing. I never knew they had chocolate shows.

    I wish I had been there. I love dark chocolate.

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  18. Aaugh! Chocolate AND fashion? This is too much. I wonder how you get into the chocolate-truffle-making industry...sigh...

    Do you ever get free samples for painting beautiful chocolates?

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  19. Anonymous9:27 PM

    Is the chocolate show still going one? If so where in Paris?

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