Paris Chocolate Shops for Easter Treats

Joyeuses Pâques!

When it comes to Easter chocolates in Paris, you can find flying bells, real eggs filled with solid chocolate, and giant eggs that think they are bunnies. Gourmet Easter chocolate reigns supreme in Paris. Here’s where to find it.

A Parisian Easter Egg Hunt

I have my own little Easter tradition that I like to indulge in each year. Not surprisingly, it involves Paris chocolate shops.

Every Easter Sunday, I have my own personal Easter egg hunt where I go on the search for delicious and unique Easter chocolate in the artisanal chocolate mecca that is Paris, France. Forget plastic eggs; this is a Parisian Easter egg hunt.

Usually before I head to church on Sunday, I will go from chocolate shop to chocolate shop filling my Easter basket (i.e. my hands) with treats. It’s like trick-or-treating on Halloween, except it’s more beautiful, and I have to pay for it.

A short stroll around the Marais will find you stumbling upon pretty shop windows filled with Easter delights. My two favorite neighborhoods for Easter chocolate finds are the Marais (3rd and 4th), Saint Germain (6th), and the 7th.

Josephine Vannier

Josephine Vannier had a series of gorgeous eggs with “This is a rabbit” or “This is a chicken” written in chocolate. I convinced myself that I would host an Easter brunch so I could justify this giant 21 euro egg that’s filled with other chocolate goodies.

I didn’t end up having time to host a brunch, though, so there I was, with this big, beautiful, untouched egg. Normal people would have shared it with friends or coworkers, but I sat there and stared at it, too excited to wait for sharing.

As I held the treasure in my hands, I examined it, trying to figure out the best way to dive into the interior (Take a bite? Tap a hole? Use a knife?). I started squeezing towards the top, thinking I might puncture a small hole or just break off the top.

And then I squeezed a leeetle too hard, and it exploded like a chocolate piñata in my hand, sending an explosion of chocolate pieces all over the room.

Most of it fell directly beneath me, but there were shards all over the floor and table.  Maybe normal people would collect the shards and save them throughout the week to eat in rational portions. I had every intention of doing that, but proceeded to eat the entire thing because it was so good.

“Oops”.

Gérard Mulot

One thing that I have to buy every year is a chocolate egg in a real egg shell. This is one of my favorite things I’ve found here that I haven’t seen elsewhere. It makes me giddy to peel a real egg apart to reveal chocolate within.

And they come in the normal cardboard egg crates – just a bit more colorful. I can’t handle it. They are my Easter obsession.

Usually, I get these from Michel Chaudun or Patrick Roger, but they cost something like 7-10 euros for one egg, so I just get one. This year, I found them for the bargain price of 4.50 euros at Gérard Mulot, and they were brightly colored eggs, rather than a normal uncolored shell.

Using the brunch excuse again, I bought three, but of course I ate two on the same day, before Easter, like a chocolate addict with zero self control. (See also: That giant chocolate egg I ate by myself. Plus all the chocolate inside.)

Chez Hélène

Another beautiful store I happened across in the Marais is called Chez Hélène.

These fresh flavored marshmallows put those chemically tasting over-sugared Peeps to shame. They’re probably not as funny to watch in the microwave though. (If you haven’t done that, stop everything, and go buy some Peeps).

How beautiful are these giant twin vases filled with flowers? Jaw dropping. And even though there’s a strong reflection, I don’t really mind because it’s reflecting beautiful Paris buildings. And myself, carrying too many bags of Easter sweets for the “brunch” I was hosting.

Window shopping is a fun enough activity in and of itself.

À la Mere de Famille

It’s not chocolate bunnies, but flying Easter bells, that reign in France. Why flying bells?

The tradition is that all the church bells fly off to the Vatican in Rome on good Friday, symbolically mourning the death of Jesus (to this day, church bells do not ring in France between Good Friday and Easter Sunday – because they are in Rome, duh).

Then on Sunday morning, they fly back to Paris to ring in celebration of the resurrection, bringing back chocolate and eggs with them.

I wish they would bring back fresh pasta and perfectly made espressos, but to each their own.

5 Paris chocolate shops for Easter chocolate and candy

Including giant eggs, flying bells, real eggs, and pastel marshmallows:

1. Josephine Vannier (“Ceci est un lapin” egg)
2. Gérard Mulot (Bright colored eggs)
3. Michel Chaudun (Incredible chocolate sculptures and real eggs)
4. À la Mere de Famille (Chocolate bells of all sizes, and eggs, and fish, and chickens, and rabbits)
5. Chez Hélène (Marshmallows, chocolates, and other candies)

There are many, many more incredible chocolate shops in Paris (Pierre Hermé and Jacques Genin are two other favorites), and this is not a “best” list or even a “favorites” list. It’s just where I happened to go this year on my Easter egg hunt, and I would be happy to go again.

May your baskets be filled with more chocolate than you should reasonably consume. Happy Easter!