Salon du Chocolat
Or, for 15E all the chocolate you can eat.
Ironically, right around Halloween in Paris the fall chocolate show arrives! This is the 3rd time we've happened to be in Paris while it was going on. Imagine a large convention center hall with 4-500 different booths 15'x15' (some larger) all piled high with chocolate and staffed with people offering it to you.
From the standpoint of the chocolate sellers, this is a retail sales event, with sampling. It's a way to reach out to tens of thousands of possible customers, all of whom are there for the chocolate sampling and the occasional opportunity to buy.
The operators of this event have tried to wrap it with culture and make it about more than just eating chocolates. There are lectures (years ago I attended one on chocolate truffle making, more to test my language skills). There's a fashion show. The local TV stations run "live from" broadcasts. There are both big (10+ feet tall) and medium (2 feet tall) chocolate sculptures that have received competition awards. And there are a few people selling peripheral products like chocolate molds and cook books.
Since the first time I went to this in 2006 it seems like it's gotten bigger! And, as with just about everything else, French language skills are less necessary. Chinese film crews roving and interviewing. 4-5 Japanese chocolate producers with booths sampling. Very international.
I'm curious but don't know how to check -- is this considered a "large" show? I'd like to think the largest, but maybe the independent wine producers or the house and garden shows are larger. I just don't know.
But, maybe it's getting a little too big for me. Tons and tons of people attended (we arrived 45 minutes after the opening, on a Thursday)! And more of the producers seem to be "mass market". It used to have at least a little feel of small time producers, but we've discovered that the small producers have all expanded. Maxine and I went together and today (Sunday) I'd planned to go again by myself as I'd done last time we were here. But, it just doesn't seem worth it. So, I'm writing about it instead. If you visit Paris in late October should you go -- heck yes!
Ironically, right around Halloween in Paris the fall chocolate show arrives! This is the 3rd time we've happened to be in Paris while it was going on. Imagine a large convention center hall with 4-500 different booths 15'x15' (some larger) all piled high with chocolate and staffed with people offering it to you.
From the standpoint of the chocolate sellers, this is a retail sales event, with sampling. It's a way to reach out to tens of thousands of possible customers, all of whom are there for the chocolate sampling and the occasional opportunity to buy.
The operators of this event have tried to wrap it with culture and make it about more than just eating chocolates. There are lectures (years ago I attended one on chocolate truffle making, more to test my language skills). There's a fashion show. The local TV stations run "live from" broadcasts. There are both big (10+ feet tall) and medium (2 feet tall) chocolate sculptures that have received competition awards. And there are a few people selling peripheral products like chocolate molds and cook books.
Since the first time I went to this in 2006 it seems like it's gotten bigger! And, as with just about everything else, French language skills are less necessary. Chinese film crews roving and interviewing. 4-5 Japanese chocolate producers with booths sampling. Very international.
I'm curious but don't know how to check -- is this considered a "large" show? I'd like to think the largest, but maybe the independent wine producers or the house and garden shows are larger. I just don't know.
But, maybe it's getting a little too big for me. Tons and tons of people attended (we arrived 45 minutes after the opening, on a Thursday)! And more of the producers seem to be "mass market". It used to have at least a little feel of small time producers, but we've discovered that the small producers have all expanded. Maxine and I went together and today (Sunday) I'd planned to go again by myself as I'd done last time we were here. But, it just doesn't seem worth it. So, I'm writing about it instead. If you visit Paris in late October should you go -- heck yes!
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