Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Place,
Planete Chocolat
(rue du Lombard/
Lombardstraat 24;
&
32/2/511 07 55
) sells
distinctively elegant medallions of rich
chocolate, which lie meltingly flat on your
tongue. There's also a cafe and a small
museum here, where they run a hands-on
demonstration on Saturdays (www.planete
chocolate.be). Farther south, on the place
du Grand Sablon (also notable for the
flamboyant Gothic Notre-Dame du Sablon
church),
Wittamer Chocolate
(
&
32/2/
546 11 10
) sells a luscious line of hand-
made pralines and, a few doors down, runs
an upscale cafe and pastry shop. To the
west, near the Park van Brussel, there
are two superb chocolate shops to check
out: petite
Chocolatier Mary
(rue Royale/
Konigstraat 73;
&
32/2/217-45-00
), which
provides its smooth handcrafted pralines
to the Belgian royal court; and
Le Choco-
latier Manon
(rue du Congrès/Con-
gresstraat 24;
&
32/2/425-26-32
), a tidy
little white shop with red awnings that sells
pralines so beautiful, you almost feel guilty
biting into them. If you haven't overdosed
yet, you can circle back to the Grand Place
area to
La Maison du Chocolat Artisanal
The Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate in Brussels.
produces 172,000 tons of chocolate per
year and has more than 2,000 chocolate
shops—most of them artisanal chocolat-
iers, even in the smallest towns. With such
keen competition, and such a refined pub-
lic palate, it's not enough for their candies
to taste good—they're also expected to
look like tiny works of art.
In the capital, Brussels, chocolate is so
ubiquitous you almost expect the city's
mascot sculpture, Mannequin Pis, to be
spouting a stream of hot cocoa. Kick off
your chocolate tour at the
Museum of
Cocoa and Chocolate
(rue de la Tête d'Or/
Guldenhoofdstraat 9-11;
&
32/2/514 20
48;
www.mucc.be), a lovely little museum
set in a fine old stepped-gable townhouse
close to the Grand Place. Three floors
of exhibitions describe the history and mak-
ing of chocolate in detail, but the real
draw here is the daily chocolate-making
demonstrations.
After the museum, it's time to hit the
streets. A few streets south of the Grand
Pralines from Le Chocolatier Manon in Brussels.
