Joyeuse Saint-Valentin

Valentine’s Day is really all about love—love of chocolate. The window displays went up weeks before the coveted event. It made me feel welcome in Paris, like the Tour du Chocolat was really kicking off. It didn’t matter that it was the coldest winter that Paris could remember; I was filled with warmth as I passed by beautiful displays of chocolate hearts.

Since Valentine’s Day fell on a Sunday, I received a very surprising package on the Thursday before. I was hanging around school between classes when someone came to tell me that a package was delivered for me. Everyone was excited and followed me upstairs—I literally mean everyone, since we were all at school and it was a common break for all of the classes. I opened a large box, containing roses and chocolats—from Matt; wonderful, thoughtful, missing me from America, Matt. The ladies swooned. It was ironic how the most romantic happenings at BU Paris had been my delivery from America.

The next day, I decided to visit two chocolat shops on my list and pick up gifts for my mom and Pam, as they were my visiting Valentines. I started on rue St-Honoré, off of Tulieries and peeled left. I had to reach 231 and 201, rue St-Honoré. I must have been distracted my the boutiques of Chanel, Prada, and Gucci because the street seemed to change to rue Faubourg St-Honoré. The numbers were still climbing so, not knowing what Faubourg meant, I continued to walk—for an hour! I was freezing and when I finally reached 199, rue Faubourg St-Honoré, it was the wrong chocolat shop! (I’m not complaining because it was another Patrick Roger, but I was deceived by the New York Times.) I pushed forward to 225, Le Maison du Chocolat—wrong again! I was confused. Why would there be chocolate shops one number away from the NYT listing and what was Faubourg? I was too cold to keep looking and went home but not without arms full of Valentine’s chocolates—hey, they might not have been on the list but they were chocolate shops nonetheless.

At home, I discovered A) Faubourg means “working class area”, B) I had walked in the wrong direction, and C) rue St- Honoré and rue Faubourg St- Honoré are the same street but cross different Arrondisements. The real addresses:

Patrick Roger (199, rue Faubourg St- Honoré)
Maison du Chocolat (225, rue Faubourg St- Honoré)

Michel Cluizel (201, rue St.-Honoré)
Jean-Paul Hévin (231, rue St-Honoré)

The actual Valentine’s Day was spent with my lovely two ladies in Normandie. We had a delicious meal of everything wonderful and French.