Chocolat: Patrick Roger

My Tour du Chocolat began with a New York Times article of a biking tour of Paris via chocolate shops. When I was arrived, I was a little disappointed to learn that it is impossible to rent bikes here without a French bank account (which the article fails to mention). I decided to keep the list of chocolate shops on me and visit each individually or while exploring.

The first sunny friday after midterms, I found myself taking the train directly to the Arc de Triomphe to visit the first of my chocolate shops. The chocolate shop is located in the 16th arrondisement on the Rue de Victor Hugo. This area of Paris is known to be a chic and wealthy neighborhood, so I was excited to window shop on my way.

I found the first stop, Patrick Roger with ease. The interior has illuminated walls with a forest motif and two rows of chocolates in the middle. They also have chocolate sculptures along the wall. When I visited they were displaying large naked chocolate women, strange but amazingly crafted. I asked the chocotier for his suggestions of the best chocolat noir. I got a choco-passion, chocolat-citron, chocolat-prailine, with a free added chocolat-pistache. The two ones with nuts were delicious; they had flavored marzipan interiors and a nut on top. The citron chocolate (lime) was surprisingly refreshing and a great flavor combination. As for the chocolat-passion, I have developed an even deeper love for chocolate. This bon bon was absolutely, undoubtably, the most amazing chocolate that I have ever eaten in my life. (Very similar flavor combination as the Langham Hotel's Chocolate Passionfruit Mousse at their Chocolate Buffet in Boston- also highly recommended). I checked the article, which confirmed my findings; it said to try the most outstanding passion fruit chocolats at Patrick Roger's in Paris.

After my first experience, I am very excited to try the rest of the New York Times Chocolate Shop list. I also shared the article with some other sweet-tooths here. Paris is soon to have lots of sugar-high Boston students running around on Valentine's Day!!