Paris Celebrates
the World’s First Chocolate Concept Store

By Sally Peabody


 
 


Now here’s a great a concept! Pierre Cluizel, accomplished chocolatier, and son of master chocolatier Michel Cluizel, has created the world’s first chocolate concept store. This gorgeous complex of things-chocolate is located right in the heart of St. Germain des Pres on the historic pedestrianized Cour du Commerce. This is a glorious destination for those with even the tiniest interest in all-things-chocolate.

Un Dimanche à Paris offers numerous tempting opportunities to eat, drink, taste, and even to learn to cook with, chocolate. The artfully imagined and designed complex includes a shop, a restaurant/café, a state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen, and a relaxing bar-lounge.

The shop offers a wide selection of premium chocolates and chocolate patisserie. If you prefer to drink your chocolate, be sure to try a small tasting-cup of the decadently rich chocolat chaud. It is beyond fabulous.

You can also buy numerous “chocolate accessories.” Choose from the many luscious jars of creative or classic caramel sauces (including one made with goat-milk butter). Other temptations for crafting one’s own dreamy chocolate desserts include single-origin chocolate tablets from all over the chocolate-producing world, packets of edible gold leaf or bits of crépes dentelles that add crispy flavor notes to sundaes, cakes or pastries. The packaging is cleanly elegant, making for stellar gifts for oneself or for fortunate chocolate-loving friends.

Moving beyond the shop, Un Dimanche à Paris continues to explore the concept of eating and drinking fine chocolate. There is an open kitchen where you can watch chefs creating patisserie and cakes for sale in the shop and for their restaurant/cafe. There is an attractive dining room with an enticing “Degustation Menu” where you can enjoy serious gourmet cuisine, each dish inflected with a subtle flavor-note of carefully matched single-origin chocolate. In the afternoons you can settle in for a pot of that decadent chocolat chaud or one of twenty plus fine teas and a selection of delectable patisserie. The restaurant also serves lunch daily and brunch on weekends.

On the second level you will find a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen that offers classes in making chocolate patisserie. There is also a comfortably hip lounge and bar area where drinks are crafted individually to your taste and often include a hint of chocolate.

Then, there is the wall… in a perfect marriage of traditional and contemporary design, Un Dimanche à Paris incorporates and highlights an intact multi-story column from the 13th century Philippe Auguste walls that once encircled the then-small city straddling the Seine. The wall is artfully worked into the complex’s design, providing a stunning architectural center-point for this establishment that carefully honors tradition while being utterly contemporary. As the mission statement says “L’Art du vivre Autour du Chocolat”. Definitely worth a visit.

 


Sally Peabody is a Paris Specialist who advises independent travelers on getting to their best in Paris. Sally also leads small group culinary/cultural tours in Paris and the Pays Basque and in Istanbul and other regions of Turkey. Visit www.yourgreatdaysinparis.com, www.turkishjourneys.com.

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