Paris’s Best Chocolate Shops, Mapped in a New Digital Guide

Next time you visit Paris, wouldn’t it be lovely to have a personal chocolate expert in your pocket? Then, after your visit to the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre, or the Musée Rodin, a tap on your phone would guide you to the closest shop for bean-to-bar chocolate indulgence.

Building a Guidebook

Estelle Tracy at an online tasting

That dream is now reality, thanks to chocolate sommelier, Chocolate Professor contributor Estelle Tracy’s new interactive guide, The Craft Chocolate-Lover’s Guide to Paris. Tracy is a French native and an award-winning food writer and chocolate sommelier who now lives near Philadelphia and leads chocolate tastings, virtually or in person. Naturally, when her scores of students find out that she returns to Paris annually, they beg her for recommendations. She used to send out detailed pdfs, but now, her new interactive guidebook, which came out in October 2025, and which she can update whenever needed, will point visitors in the right direction, no matter where they are.

Interactive and downloadable

Paris photo credit Anthony Delanoix

Tracy had long planned to write a guidebook of chocolate spots in Paris, but something was amiss. “Paper guides have limitations, since shops come and go and change locations,” she says. The lightbulb moment happened when she posted about her desire to compile a guidebook but mentioned that she couldn’t figure out how to make it user friendly. Someone on LinkedIn tagged Saltete.com.  “I looked at their guides and thought, this is flipping genius,” Tracy says. “Since it is an interactive, downloadable guide, published on the Salteteguide digital platform, it interfaces with Google maps, and supplies ‘near me’ suggestions no matter where you are in Paris. All I have to focus on is the research and writing, the platform, interacting with Google, pulls in the hours, locations and photos too. Once you are in Paris, you just hit the button that says, ‘see what’s near me.’”

What's in the Guide?

• Bean-to-bar shops and chocolatiers

• Suburban picks

• Coffee shops

Interactive chocolate guide to Paris

The main categories she included are bean-to-bar shops and chocolatiers (chocolate makers). She also lists a few spots outside of Paris proper, in nearby suburbs, plus a couple of her favorite coffee shops.

Tracy provides detailed descriptions of 17 different bean-to bar chocolate shops, but since many of them have several addresses to choose from, it adds up to a total of 50 sweet spots around Paris. She got tips from leaders in the industry. “I wanted to include the classic shops plus one-of-a-kind gems,” she says. “Everyone knows PLAQ,” she says about the acclaimed bean to bar spot whose creator admits his inspiration was San Francisco’s Dandelion Chocolate. “I also wanted to give focus to a few special hole-in-the wall spots, that also deserve love.” For example, she praises the tiny shoebox sized shop, L’Instant Cacao, where the owner’s mother may help you choose the right bar and make you what Tracy swears is the best hot chocolate in Paris.

She is quick to point out, “I want this to be a very personal guide, not an encyclopedia or general info from ChatGPT.” The curated listings support her strong focus on bean to bar craft chocolate. Her entries also include background information and some suggestions of her favorite items at each shop, so readers don’t have to try everything.  An example is Jade Genin, the daughter of a famous chocolatier, who left her career as an attorney to dive into chocolate and created her signature tiny multi-colored pyramids. Tracy praises the mint flavored pyramid and her work with pistachios.  And for an unusual treat, she suggests the chocolate lipstick at Le Cacaotier.

“I want this to be a very personal, curated guide, not an encyclopedic listing. So far, users have been delighted with it. Some even greet the owners of a small shop, with the line, “Estelle sent me and told me to try this!”

A super handy element is that besides the address, phone and website, each shop’s listing has all the details of the days and hours it is open and closed, which can vary a lot in Paris, even among shops of the same chocolatier. And she will keep it updated with new developments.

Tracy has also designed several detailed itineraries, including a 2-, 4- or 6-hour walking tour in different neighborhoods that are home to several great stops. What a plan! Delight in the best chocolate in Paris and then walk it off!

Chocolate Professor readers who order The Craft Chocolate-Lover’s Guide to Paris (using this link) will get $3 off until March 31, 2026.