Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The best chocolate in Paris?


There are quite a few places in Paris where you can buy - and eat - good chocolate and Les chocolats Foucher is definitely one of them. Even though they have two stores in Paris (this one avenue de l'Opéra and one on the left bank, on the rue du Bac) it's anything but a chain store and it's still a family operated business (founded in 1819). If you come to Paris visit the store on the rue du Bac because you can also have tea there, and if you can't make it to France, well, you can order on the net.

52 comments:

  1. Eric, you know just what to do to please us girls don't you? Chocolate mmmm! this looks delicious and i'm tempted to place an order right now. I've just been to my fridge in desperation for some, inspired by your photo, but... there is none :( Probably a good thing...

    I love this old delivery carriage.

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  2. I watched the film Chocolat the other day. Interesting. Big disappointment just now: turned tv over to find the very END of Amelie; a film i've wanted to watch for ages. Oh well. Now i need chocolate even MORE.

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  3. OH-MY-GOD! A new chocolate address for me to explore in Paris!!!! Thank you Eric!!!!
    Chocolate is my biggest weakness, I've mentioned I'm a chocoholic. I really am!
    Lynn, it's not a good advice, but you should do what I do, I always keep a chocolate bar in a drawer on my bedside table.. you know, for moments like this! I'll have my hershey's bar right now!

    Ok, so here's a complaint about this photo: why isn't there a beautiful dark chocolate displayed in it???!!!

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  4. Luv the delivery cart! Chocolat a la carte, I take it...

    I think science will someday prove that chocolate has strong medicinal properties for mediating depression.

    These healing properties are effective immediately on ingestion. And there is little danger in an overdose. Side effects however, might occur with prolonged use.

    Use with reckless abandon!

    lol!

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  5. Lynn, why don't you rent Amelie Polain's dvd?

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  6. This is a beautiful picture and I mean the cart. Wen to their email address, and browsed what they offer online, looks really delicious. Eric you have the eye and the camera, keep on clicking.

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  7. I am impressed by the variety of sales made from a street cart in man cities. And, I'm happy to see that this is a family-owned business. Wish it even greater success. Off to the link now to see if I can afford it!!

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  8. Chocolate and Paris??? What's better than that?...Ok, well almost nothing!

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  9. I had some good chocolate while in Paris but I wish I had known of this place...to check it out.

    This is totally off topic, but I just received an email with a link that I must share with "ya'll"!!! A video. You may have seen portions (or all) of it back when it happened. I watched a portion of it...last summer, I think...can't remember when, but have never seen this much. I love this guy! Still...it is rather shocking that he has the courage to say what he says! I think the audience is a little stunned.

    He takes a few minutes to get "warmed up" so give it a little time. To quote the person that emailed it to me, "He's got balls." An understatement! Click here for the most ballsy guy around.

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  10. Oh! I should have mentioned this: the audience is the American media (newspaper/TV).

    He slams this as well (deservedly).

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  11. One last thing:

    Liberal=left (opposite from Europe)

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  12. LOL at Kate...

    "Kate said...

    I am impressed by the variety of sales made from a street cart in man cities."

    Please explain!

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  13. Can't wait to try another chocolate place! Been to that great ice cream store on rue de Bac but the chocolate place doesn't ring a bell.
    At the end of her first class meal, I really DID (on a dare )go up to Juliette Binoche with Godiva in hand and say "Chocolat?"( with the French pronounciation) She smiled and was very gracious. I will now crawl back into my hole.

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  14. Michel,

    What did you mean earlier when you said that I seemed confused...so you won't go there.

    Are you referring to my comment, "Michel, gay or straight"?

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  15. Yes Susan, but don't read too much into it.

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  16. Monica, you'll be assured to know that in France, often women (sorry, but I only hear it from women) will refer to the magnesium qualities of chocolate. For example, if someone is tired or stressed, they will say, "better eat some magnesium" referring to chocolate. I'm sure a French person can explain it in french and the proper use of the expression, but for some reason, there's always a lot of chocolate around the office!

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  17. Eric, it's been years since I've noticed this store avenue de l'Opéra without ever getting into it though i'm a great chocolate fan. A little bit like when we Parisians consider we'll always have time to go on the Eieffel Tower or make a tour on the Bateaux Mouches. Anyway, you've decided me to go there. That will be a change from my beloved Ladurée's St Honoré à la rose !

    Tomate, your discussion with anonymous yesterday was quite refreshing and reminded me some of your earlier thoughtful comments. Will we have the pleasure to hear your voice live in Paris in 2007 ?

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  18. Michael i was thinking the same. Man city? What's that then?
    A lot of chocolate around the office? What on earth would i do. I'd struggle against that i can tell you. Ooh to have all that temptation. Same thing in my bedside table Monica i just couldn't! Anyway then i'd have to drag my sorry, chocolate-filled body to the bathroom again to re-clean my teeth. There's a Mars bar in the fridge which i'm so far successfully ignoring, i'd adore some top quality choc though which i'm sure this cart delivers.

    DVD, Monica; can't. Mine has just broken so i have no vehicle for it .

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  19. Also try Puerto Cacao (rue de tocqueville) www.puertocacao.com

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  20. Lynn : mars bar // chocolate… a real debate that brings back to monday's post about Europe !
    ;o)

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  21. Love it! Tight croppin, the lines and the dark and milk chocolat color. Is is dark or milk for vous?

    PHX-CDG
    Thank you for the new name. I like the play Philly/filly. It is far better than the old Mare ain't what she used to be!

    Lynn
    Thank you, I will make you proud. The old saying: watch one, do one, teach one!
    DANCING WITH THE STARS (of PDP!)

    I am off to tread on the treadmill/shower/work, counting down the weeks...

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  22. Yes Michael I've heard about it. There are so many reasons to it chocolate ;-)

    What's ironic is that here some "energy bars"(that's what they call here) made with chocolate are sold in gyms! So I guess people recharge their battery by eating it, but then again they have to work out twice as hard to burn those calories!!!

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  23. Aaah, chocolate! Nature's most perfect food. Love the photo of the chocolate-colored cart.

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  24. Ladurée, Fauchon, Godiva... these words are like music to my ears... too bad they´re so expensive..
    I have a small pink heart-shaped chocolate box from Fauchon where I keep aspirins and stuff like that since the chocolate inside of it ended, and I must say it ended way too fast!

    urgh, medicine instead of chocolate!

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  25. Chocolat ala carte. John Nez's comment is pretty clever, n'est-ce pas? The cart is cute, and the photo is warm and tres Parisian.

    Last night I ate dinner with my traveling buddy at a bistro and read my travel papers. He is half convinced to meet me in Paris, and maybe Cannes as well. Maybe both of us will see y'all this year again. I've heard from Michel of 'Spirit of Paris', also, and I think we'll take a walk through le Quartier latin.

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  26. Mmmm...chocolate! Love th cart, too.

    Did you like Chocolat, lynn? I saw it a week or two ago. Aside from the obvious pleasure of Johnny Depp, I very much enjoyed the movie!

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  27. Yes i did Soosh. Not quite as much as i'd hoped, but yep it was 'good'. Had no choc today.

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  28. An other chocolate lover here. Can't have a day without it.

    I agree with john nez, chocolate has a lot of medicinal properties, and anti-depression qualities. The high level of sugar and fat contained in chocolate rises the level of serotonine in the blood: which is what Prozac does.

    It also contains anandamide, from the cannabinole family and found in THC (tétra hydro cannabinol) which is the active substance in Cannabis (majijuana, weed, hashich, chronic, ganja, etc.).

    There are different chemical mechanism in the body that all tends to make you feel good and that are stimulated by the consumption of chocolate.

    Dark chocolate is the healthier form of chocolate, for those worried about their weight.

    Who could imagine a world without chocolate?

    Hasn't real chocolate desapear in George Orwell book: "1984"?

    Aren't "they" trying to make it really happen by allowing big players in the chocolate industry to use less and less cacao and still call it chocolate ?

    Will real chocolate be illegal one day like cannabis is?

    Am I tripping because I smock' heu... ate to much chocolate?

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  29. Can't quite recall the details of the chocolate ration in 1984 but i remember Winston Smith dreaming of the time when they were allowed it.

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  30. There was a news story last week about how some upscale spas in Southern California are offering chocolate treatments because of its medicinal value. They showed these women being covered head-to-toe in chocolat! Probably a little too sticky for me, but I can see how chocolate lovers would be in heaven!

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  31. ben. I have always been a lover of dark chocolate, and the info you give about it is great. I especially like this part: "Am I tripping because I smock' heu... ate to much chocolate?" Dark Chocolate is a great thing to smoke?...I mean eat.

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  32. I would like to think the Chocolate spa idea originated in France. Last yr, I was given a certificate to a spa near Montparnasse to receive a chocolate facial. I hope it is still good(the expiration date that is).Ahh, the uses of chocolate! Anyone remember Anita Pallenberg?

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  33. Philly...thank you for your comment. Very touching, thoughtful, and appreciated.

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  34. Just think phx-cdg, we'd all be lining up afterwards to lick your face!

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  35. Lol, Michael. By the way, when is the PDG get together usually held?

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  36. I've left a message on the City Daily Photo forum page to see when people are coming to Paris this summer. Eric organised the first one last summer (around July I believe), but guess it all depends on when people are in town.

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  37. about that, I just want to remind everybody that Eric has PROMISED it will be in July!!!!!!!!!

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  38. Bad news for me though, I just found out I won't be able to spend my birthday in Paris, it seems the hotel rates for the first 2 weeks of July are muuuuch more expensive then the rest of the month :-(
    So I'll probably get there by July 20th or something like that.

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  39. Susan,

    That speech was fabulous that Stephen Colbert gave. I should think he should now be fearing for his life. So much truth is said in jest!

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  40. OMG, Un mec qui delivre du chocolat à domicile, ici, il ferait fortune!!!

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  41. Glad you enjoyed it Johnny. Did you notice GB's face? He was trying to hide how mad he was...but you KNOW he was really mad!

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  42. Michael dear, a plain and simple typo: should be "many cities"--not man! There is no unconscious, deep-seated psychological issue here (at least I don't think so!!).

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  43. BTW susan, didn't mention this before, but I LOVE Stephen Colbert. Jon Stewart too. Watch 'em every Mon-Thurs! Thanks so much for sharing the link! I gotta remember to share it w/my hubby.

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  44. You could tell S. Colbert had Bushwacker and his spouse really mifted. I am surprised he and she didn't walk out. Dave insists that the show was a digitally altered show. I can't convince him that it was the real thing. He is going to investigate. He just couldn't believe that Colbert had the "B...." to say what he said. Did you see today that Big Bush is going to veto the end of the war? The will of the people doesn't mean a thing to him apparently.

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  45. Tell Dave that is was not altered. I remember when this happened and it made all the newspapers! It was a big deal! Everyone was a little shocked (although amused I'm sure)!

    Soos, I love both S.C. and J.S. also! I don't see their shows often but have watched a lot on YouTube. But...it seems almost all of Colbert's have been removed :-(

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  46. Susan, I hope Colbert isn't on you-know-who's hit list. Colbert deserves a medal for bravery. LOL

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  47. Foucher is one of the most underrated chocolatiers in Paris.

    Seriously, their chocolate is as good if not better than La Maison, but their L'opera location lacks the cache of the the big names.

    Ommmm. Their orangettes are the best.

    nm

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