Top 5 fun facts about Paris chocolate

Warning! You may want to set aside a budget specially dedicated to sweets and chocolates during your stay. Parischocolate is indeed more than cocoa and sugar: it is a way of life. And if we didn’t invent « le chocolat », we’ve definitely mastered it. For your taste buds only, here are five exquisite and mouth-watering facts about Paris chocolate! Here are our top 5 fun facts about Paris chocolate.

1.] Experience a chocolate massage

To begin our top five fun facts about Paris chocolate, let’s state a truth: nothing is too extravagant for Parisians. Indeed at the famous palace Georges V, near the Champs Elysées, you can splash out on an unusual massage at the health spa. They offer a « chocoholic option ». They will scrub and wrap your body in a smooth chocolate coating, then provide a richly nourishing cocoa shea butter massage. On top that, you can eat chocolates at the same time. Bliss!

2.] Chocolate is an art and has its idols

If you think that you have tasted it all, and that the difference between supermarket chocolate and handmade chocolate is just good marketing, you are dead wrong. Being one of the culinary capitals of the world, Paris chocolate is elaborated from the knowledge of the « artisan chocolatiers », the artists of chocolate. There are cocoa experts who bring genuine artistic flair to their chocolate, and concoct the finest in both traditional and eclectic recipes. Among them are:

• Christian Constant (delicacies like raspberry ganaches, chocolate-covered orange peel, chocolates with spicy or herbal notes)
  Address: 37 rue Assas
Metro: St. Placide or Rennes
• Jean-Paul Hevin (stopping by his chic boutique and upstairs tea room in the heart of the Rue St Honoré is a must)
  Address: 231 Rue Saint Honoré
Metro: Tuileries or Pyramides
• Pierre Hermé (an incomparable selection of chocolate cakes, pastries, and macaroons, as well as unclassifiable confections like the famous “Death by Chocolate”, the name speaks for itself.)
  Address: 72 Rue Bonaparte
Metro: St.-Germain-des-Près

3.] Paris has its own chocolate exhibition

The Salon du Chocolat, so to speak Paris Chocolate Show, is a yearly trade fair for the international chocolate industry. It is a dream for kids: chocolate statues, free tastings, chocolate fountains and most of all, the fashion chocolate show. Chocolate bikinis? You’ve dream’t it, we’ve done it.

4.] Chocolate is everywhere

Apart from the delightful sweets, Paris chocolate is also key to many french typical recipes. The « pain au chocolat » for instance: cousin to the croissant and almost everyone’s favorite French pastry, it is basically a croissant-type puff pastry containing a thick stripe of chocolate (usually dark chocolate). Close your eyes and try to imagine the chocolate oozing from the butter, crunching under the flaky pastry.

Les éclairs au chocolat are also pretty wicked: made from choux pastry, filled with chocolate cream and topped with chocolate icing, it is by far my favourite french pastry.

5.] A museum for chocolate

Paris chocolate even has its own museum, on the 10th arrondissement. It traces back to the origins of chocolate, the different ingredients and the mysteries of the cooking techniques. If you want to learn more about cocoa and why it tastes so good, you are in the right place!