Half a block from our Paris apartment, as an outgoing customer opened the door of a boutique just a crack, scents of dark, milk, and white chocolate whispered into every pore of our skin, propelling us into a wispy chocolate cloud we never wanted to leave.

With a big smile, A l’Etoile d’Or owner, Denise Acabo, asked about our favorite chocolatiers, or chocolate makers, and our purpose for coming in. How does one explain in French about having become the unintended victims of chocolate seduction?

Denise Acabo is a bit of a character, dressed in a Scottish kilt with her hair in braided pigtails. One of her best features is her big smile and another is her willingness to initiate, gently, the novice into the cult of les chocophiles (choloholics) in France.

Recalling the melt-in-my-mouth chocolate treasures sampled years ago in the village of La Clayette [lah KLETTE} in Burgundy, I inquired about that heavenly chocolatier. “Ah, bon, Bernard Dufoux. Bien sûr.” Her arm swept to the display of his confectionary delicacies. Toto, I do not think we are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, any more…

My tastebuds remembered well as we found out he had won the award as best chocolatier in France four years in a row! The family food budget for the week was far from my thoughts at this moment.

Moving from mouth-watering display to display, our chocolate cravings entered warp speed as our senses of smell and sight plus our memories of chocolates consumed overtook our good judgment. Ah, such a selection from Bernachon in Lyon! Chocolates filled with pistachio marzipan, dark chocolate flecked with gold leaf…and then the chocolates filled with liqueurs – OMG!!!

(Thought to self: “And some people go to Burgundy for the wine???”)

We departed with a half-kilo of treasures (my husband did remember that we were food shopping) which lasted about twenty minutes among our five-member household. Fortunately for the rest of us, Becky, fashion model soon to go on assignment, nearly abstained while the each of us savored his or her four ounces of ambrosia.

On subsequent visits, Denise was kind enough to educate us about the many avenues to dark-chocolate sanctification from the width and breadth of France. Today, before leaving for France, I would read either Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate and / or The Great Book of Chocolate.

From that day forward, after accepting an invitation to visit French friends, chocolate confections from A l’Etoile d’Or were our gift to our hosts. They were always known and appreciated.

Oh la la, Denise Acabo, head priestess of chocophiles in Paris, merci bien! I look forward to our next visit to Paris, always on Air France because we like being spoiled. And that is another topic!

Here is an article from the Le Daily Neuvième about A l’Etoile d’Or  of course in French.