Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel back through time to visit a Regency chocolate shop? I have! The Universe has heard my silent wail of longing for the impossible; the other day I read an article in The New York Times that mentioned a chocolate shop in Paris that was built in 1800! The shop is still there with it’s original fittings and still selling hand made chocolate and though I suspect most of their recipes have changed you can buy dark chocolate pistoles (it looks like a chocolate coin without the wrapper) that were made for Marie Antoinette. (The business was running years before they built this particular shop.) I am so excited!!! Cheap it is not! It costs about 200$ for the average box of chocolates.
As I have not yet been to Paris (the Charles de Gaule airport doesn’t count as visiting Paris) I will visit au personne and see if the shop will sell me a piece of chocolate. Can you see me…walking up to equisite counter (looking like I’ve been under a spell, asleep in a bad second hand clothes store for the last twenty years) and smiling at the well groomed individual on the other side of the counter and saying, “Bonjour!” only of course I’d be so excited it would come out sounding like “Banjure”…and then saying in broken French, “I would like one piece of chocolate…” I can see the eyes glaze over in exasperation…surely they must humour weird Americans who want to watch their weight yet taste chocolate heaven? J’espere! So if you’ve ever wanted to travel back in time have a look at their website…I particularly recommend reading the history and the blips about each different kind of boxes of chocolate they sell…the person who wrote the English was French…very charming!!! To see Debouve & Gallais’s shop go here
One day I shall go to Paris and buy a large box of truffles. I shall find a comfortable corner surrounded by beauty and sit there watching the French world pass by to the glorious taste of chocolate. Hmmmmm…yummmm!