February Chocolate Shop Map

Yesterday over a scoop of Berthillon lait d'amand ice cream, PBer Peggy asked me,

"Where's Bear?"

Bear has been Extremely busy

Running from chocolate shop to chocolate shop all over Paris for the February Map (it went out yesterday by the way).
Have you been to Foucher on 134 rue du Bac? It's one of the oldest luxury chocolate shops (from 1918) and trés charmant.

Not so far away, Maison du Chocolat on 19, rue de Sevres has colorful Saint Valentin windows. Bear was best pleased.

For Valentines Maison du Chocolat has beautiful red heart boxes instead of the usual brown.

Bear has become quite fearless. He browsed deluxe Patrick Roger of the renown turquoise bags at 108 bd St. Germain.

Nearby Bear stopped in Une Dimanche à Paris, 4-5-6 Cour du Commerce St. Andre.

Not only a big selection of Valentines goodies

Une Dimanche offers pastry and chocolate classes! YUM

Bear browses the windows at La Patisserie des Reves, not exclusively a chocolate shop

But such pretty Valentines windows and they let in dogs so bears must be welcome too.

Looking for something affordable in a luxury chocolate shop?
Go for the 'bouchées' - a big mouthful of rich chocolate usually priced under 5€

I was delighted to find all top Parisian luxury chocolate shops offer smaller-sized 'tasting' boxes like La Mere de la Famille.

Pierre Hermé has always had a small box on offer for 11,50€ - you choose the chocolates.

La creme de la creme of Paris chocolatiers, Jacques Genin

Genin has an adorable metal box of 8 chocolates for a mere 11€.
There is affordable 'haut couture' chocolates for everyone in Paris.
Do not be afraid to enter and buy a few. Me too. 

SVP tell them Parisbreakfast sent you ;))

Regarding perspective on the Paris map letters...hmmm. My landlord came to dinner and drew me a one-point perspective lesson on his napkin. I've never been any good at perspective and  probably things won't change much in the future, but I did make the crowd of French chocolate shoppers gradually get smaller for his sake. Voila!

February's Paris chocolate map is not one street but all Paris.
I may have missed a few - they will show up in next year's map. There are SO many chocolate shops in Paris! Perhaps more than anywhere else on the planet.
Bear has eaten way too many chocolates this month doing researche for you :((

If you are a new 6/12 month subscriber or renewer you can have a watercolor of Bear inside a Patrick Roger bag, the next best thing to eating a Patrick Roger chocolate.

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.
On to the chocolate chocolate fashion show! This went on and on. You could see nothing unless you viewed it from these big screens. Choco chefs were standing on 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 wandered the empty stands while the others gaped in awe. 

The chocolate displays kept me very awed.

I’m Carol Gillott, an artist living in Paris. Every month I send out beautifully illustrated letters that capture the true Parisian experience.

 Sign up to receive whimsical treasures in your mail.

Thanks for reading PB ❤️

☕️ If you’d like to support my work, you can buy me a KO-FI here  ☕️  ❤️ Thank you so much! 

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 :)