A Chocolate Museum in Paris Offers a Delicious Taste of History & Culture
You are in Paris! After you’ve admired the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, pondered the Thinker at the Rodin Museum, your next stop needs to be Choco-Story, the Musée du Chocolat where you can take a deep dive into 4000 years of chocolate history that will stimulate all your senses. The compact museum covers three floors and includes 1000 authentic pieces of chocolate history.
Mayan and Aztec goblets photo credit Anna Mindess
Museum Exhibits
Exhibits on the first floor begin with the three varieties of cocoa trees, then trace a historical timeline of cocoa and chocolate from the pre-Olmecs in 2000BC, to the Mayans and Aztecs, until the arrival of Cortez in 1521. Featured exhibits display authentic Mayan grinding stones, and dozens of ancient engraved or painted drinking goblets used in this period.
Spanish Sugar Tools photo credit Anna Mindess
The second floor focuses on what happened once chocolate arrived in Europe. Exhibits detail how the Spaniards added sugar with a fascinating display of sugar cone cutting and grinding tools. A lavish display shows the elegant china cups specially designed for drinking chocolate, plus molds, tins, and advertising posters. A focus on French chocolate history traces how the country became a nation of chocoholics, starting with King Louis XIV.
Moving to a more contemporary focus, a computer screen shares the health benefits of chocolate, while another exhibit room displays the work of modern artists who have not only crafted giant renditions of the Eiffel tower and the Arc de Triomphe out of chocolate, but high fashion dresses, purses, and shoes, to boot.
Interactive Museum Experiences
Chocolate making class photo credit Anna Mindess
This little museum offers much more than visual exhibits and offers unlimited tastes of three flavors of chocolate. To engage another sense, there are interactive boards that with the push of a button release aromas. Can you guess what you are sniffing?
Sophisticated video presentations place observers in the middle of three renowned French chocolatiers, as they demonstrate their techniques.
And if you sign up for a hands-on workshop, you will be led to another floor with a kitchen where you will receive guidance from a chocolatier and be given everything you need to dip and decorate your own chocolate bars, candied orange peels, pralines, and marshmallows. (During a holiday season, workshops focus on Easter eggs, Valentine hearts or Christmas treats).
More Choco Story Museums
This museum and the other Choco Story Museums in several cities around the world are a Van Belle family endeavor. Eddy Van Belle, the father, is passionate about antique collecting and a master of locating chocolate related historical pieces. His son, Cedric, was inspired to showcase these marvels to the public. He started in 2004 with a chocolate museum in Belgium, their home country, where there are now two, in Bruges and Brussels and then this museum in Paris and another in Colmar, France, with additional museums in Prague and Uxmal and Valladolid, Mexico. Each displays the same historical panorama but with a special focus on the contributions of the home country and all are accessible in English, French and Spanish. Cedric has since branched out into museums featuring fries and lamps. The stated goal of all the Van Belles’ museums is not only to educate the public, but also to conserve objects and traditions.