The Best Chocolate Tours in Paris (Guided & Self-Guided)
Inside one of star pastry chef Cedric Grolet’s boutiques; this one is inspired by Willy Wonka. Photo credit Kara Nielsen
Paris is a chocolate lover’s dream city. Just strolling around the city feels like a chocolate tour. Stunning filled chocolates, bonbons, and chocolate pastries are featured in every boulangerie and patisserie, not to mention actual chocolate boutiques. This is due to France’s gift-giving culture. Guests typically bring an exceptional and beautifully decorated box of chocolates when invited somewhere.
France’s culinary history and celebration of artisanship are at the root of the variety of chocolate artisans in Paris, some dating back hundreds of years, some more recently grinding cacao beans in their shop windows. The recent rise of the haute pâtissier and celebrity pastry chefs like Pierre Hermé has elevated Paris’s chocolate game to new levels. Today, traditional and groundbreaking chocolate makers are found throughout the city. There is a wide variety of guided tours available in Paris, each curating unique chocolate and pastry experiences in different areas of the city, and offering access to a broad range of chocolate styles and products. From custom tours and workshops to self-guided tours and retail specialists, there is a chocolate tour for every taste and budget.
Guided Tours
Sweet Tours in Paris: Pure Chocolate and Perfumes
A giant chocolate sea turtle at Patrick Roger. Photo credit Kara Nielsen
This unique tour focuses on engaging all the senses: seeing stunning chocolate sculptures, tasting finely crafted chocolates, and smelling exceptional perfumes. Owner and tour guide Irène Lurçat has assembled a sensory voyage beyond sweets, her area of expertise as co-author with her sister Hélène of Paris Gourmandises, a compact guide to some of Paris’s best boulangeries, patisseries, and chocolatiers.
Irene Lurçat, Owner of Sweet Tours in Paris
Beginning at the Place de Madeleine, the two-hour tour covers six chocolate and pastry shops from some of France’s most esteemed and innovative makers and four distinguished perfumiers. The tour begins at Patrick Roger, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) who not only crafts exquisite filled chocolates, including his signature half-spheres, but also large-scale chocolate sculptures, on view in an upstairs gallery.
During my tour, enormous sea turtles graced his shop window. From there, ganache-filled chocolates, colorful macarons, and uniquely flavored truffles alternate with excursions into aromatic perfume shops. Irène shares the background and significance at each stop, which includes tasty samples and opportunities for purchase. The tour concludes with the de rigueur cup of Angelina hot chocolate, a Paris must-try, near the Louvre.
€89 per person for two hours; sweet-tours-in-paris.com
La Cuisine Paris: Pastry and Chocolate in the Marais
A tour stop for ganache-filled kouign-amann at Maison Georges Larnicol. Photo credit Kara Nielsen
The popular English-language cooking school La Cuisine Paris offers a two-hour pastry and chocolate tour that begins at its doors next to the Seine on the Right Bank and winds into the heart of the historic Marais district. While chocolate is not its sole focus, there is ample opportunity to choose a chocolate pastry or confection at every stop. The friendly and informative tour guides share stories not only about tour stops but also the architecture and notable elements of one of the city’s trendiest shopping districts.
Chocolatier Pierre Marcolini is the chocolate highlight, with themed shop windows. During Easter, the shop featured chocolates in the shape of thimbles and buttons with tape measure decorations.
Haute Couture Easter windows at Pierre Marcolini. Photo credit Kara Nielsen
The tour also includes many unique pastries, including a light-as-air meringue confection, a sumptuous kouign-amann from Brittany’s top producer (another MOF), and a candied almond-studded sweet bread popular in Belgium and the northeast of France.
€99 per person for two hours; lacuisineparis.com
Tarts & Truffles Tour ‘Tout Chocolat’: A Hands-On Chocolate Experience
Tasting chocolate on the Tarts & Truffles tour. Photo credit Andrea Sunderland
For those seeking a more in-depth, bespoke, and hands-on experience, American chocolate expert and pastry chef Lisa Arielle Allen curates customized tours and workshops for small groups and families that immerse guests in chocolate from many angles: history, manufacturing, tasting, and creating. Through Tarts & Truffles, Allen leverages her experience as an official Chocolate Taster for the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao, her French pastry training, and her teaching background to explore chocolate holistically. She is a knowledgeable supporter of the city’s bean-to-bar chocolate makers and shares how these artisans coax the best flavor out of globally sourced cacao beans.
Lisa Arielle Allen of Tarts & Truffles. Photo credit My Paris Portraits
The Tarts & Truffles two-hour Tour ‘Tout Chocolat’ begins with an introduction to cacao and a lesson on how to taste and appreciate chocolate, then visits two to three chocolate boutiques before concluding with hands-on chocolate-making in Allen’s chocolate studio.
For wine lovers, Allen partners with wine expert Tanisha Townsend for the Chocolate and Wine Double Masterclass, which is held in a wine bar. Guests discover how craft chocolates pair with red, white, orange, and Port wines. Allen also designs custom tours, workshops, and pastry classes for individuals and groups.
€550 for three people for two hours; tartsntruffles.com
Eating Europe’s A Morning in Paris Food Tour: A Sweet Start to the Day
The Eating Europe Morning in Paris tour starts with chocolate and croissants
Start your day with French-style hot chocolate and croissants with this tour based in the 1st arrondissement near the Palais-Royal. The nearly three-hour tour visits notable food and beverage boutiques, boulangeries, and historical sites, including a hidden covered shopping arcade and a famous French tea company. The chocolatiers featured are exceptional artisans. Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse showcases the famed Michelin-starred chef’s bean-to-bar operation and confection lines. PLAQ Chocolat makes its bean-to-bar chocolate in full view of visitors in its small shop and showcases how it sources cacao beans from unique places around the globe, such as India, with maps and signs. Éclairs, cheese plates, and a mini croissant taste-off round out this sweet morning tour.
$125 per person for three hours; eatingeurope.com
Self-Guided Tours
The Craft Chocolate Lover’s Guide to Paris - Rue du Bac: Old and New Chocolatiers in the 7th
Visiting the Jacques Genin shop. Photo credit Kara Nielsen
French native and chocolate expert Estelle Tracy is based in the U.S., but has created an online guide to craft chocolate in Paris that is valuable for anyone looking for an insider’s look at the most interesting and varied craft chocolatiers in town. Along with listings of bean-to-bar and chocolate makers' shops, the guide includes four self-guided itineraries of varying lengths, each in a different district of Paris.
By following Itinerary 2 - Rue du Bac in the chic 7th arrondissement, in just a short time, chocolate lovers can visit some of the top chocolatiers in the city, including Jacques Genin and Chapon, with its famous chocolate mousse bar (personal favorite: Venezuela Canoabo 75%). Also on the tour are Estelle’s favorite croissant in Paris and one of France’s oldest chocolatiers, Debauve & Gallais, founded in the early 1800s. All of the itineraries feature worthwhile stops and help readers cut to the chase in finding many of Paris’ finest craft chocolatiers, old and new.
$25 to download four self-guided itineraries at saltete.com
La Grande Épicerie and Galeries Lafayette Le Gourmet: Department Store Chocolate Extravaganzas
Babka on offer at Babka Zana at Galeries Lafayette Le Gourmet. Photo credit Kara Nielsen
While not technically tours, Parisian department stores are something special: they unite the best makers in one place, offering exceptional seasonal offerings for clothes, shoes, cosmetics, and even pastries and fine chocolate.
On the Left Bank in the 7th arrondissement, the Bon Marché department store is home to La Grande Épicerie, one of the most thrilling specialty food stores in the world. It offers packaged foods in every category, fresh baked goods and pastries, plus meat, seafood, prepared meals, and restaurants. Its collection of chocolate confections, bars, and desserts allows visitors easy access to many of France’s top chocolate makers, with seasonal specialties and a huge range of easy-to-pack bars.
A spring storefront design at La Grande Épicerie. Photo credit Kara Nielsen
Over on the Right Bank in the 9th arrondissement, Galeries Lafayette has a separate multi-floor store devoted to food, Le Gourmet. On the ground floor, chocolatiers and patisseries representing Paris’ top makers display and serve eye-popping desserts, chocolates, and packaged products in alluring stalls. Giant croissants, on-trend babkas, and ice cream delight guests as they meander the often-packed floor. Groceries and restaurants are located on different floors, giving visitors ample opportunity to explore and discover the best of French gastronomy in one place.
Free to explore, with purchases optional; lagrandeepicerie.com and galerieslafayette.com