While Parisian chocolate shops range in style from chic modernism to temples of nostalgia, one shop remains a timeless world of wonders. On a quiet corner of the rue de l’Université, Michel Chaudun has for years produced some of the city’s most exquisite chocolates.

Michel Chaudun 149 rue de l’Universite, Paris 75007 (Stores in Paris and Tokyo) A former employee of La Maison du Chocolate, Michel Chaudun set out on his own just a few years ago, opening a little corner shop on Rue de l’Universite. According to one well-known Parisian food critic, Chaudun’s product now equals that of his mentor, Robert Linxe, in both quality and creativity. His base chocolate, a blend of chocolates from nine sources, is rich and complex.

Products: includes over twenty-five creations, the latest of which is a crunchy, dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa liquor) flavored with toasted, crushed cocoa beans.

Chaudun is an artist—you can see some of the lovely drawings and watercolors he created as a child in a charming shop window that includes his report cards and school pictures. Besides traditionally shaped chocolates, the shop is filled from floor to ceiling with trompe l’oeil délices including an Hermès Kelly bag and a remarkable glossy chocolate chestnut bursting out of its hand-painted prickly marzipan hull.

Two of his finest creations have been widely copied: dark chocolate pastilles filled with éclats de fève (crunchy bits of cocoa bean), and pavés, luscious little cubes of cocoa-dusted ganache. Let one of Chaudun’s pavés melt on your tongue, and you’d swear that Linnaeus tasted one before he named chocolate “food of the gods.”

WebSite: http://www.michel-chaudun.jp/

Michel Chaudun Chocolate is rated No.7 in our “Top 12 Most Delicious Chocolate for Valentine’s Day 2011“

This entry was posted on February 12th, 2011 and is filed under Chocolate Gifts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.