A pop-up chocolate store insider tip

It is no secret that I adore chocolate. If YOU like chocolate, chances are you have heard of Patrick Roger, the French chocolatier most famous for his giant chocolate orangutans. An insider tip came to my ears that this month Monsieur Roger - who was named a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) in 2000 at the tender age of 32 - is featuring 50 of his sculptures in chocolate but also in a variety of materials such as bronze, cast aluminum, and other metals somewhere in the Marais.

However the disappointment was big when all we encountered in the pop-up store was a little workshop showing how marzipan elephants were formed. I must add the artist was standing on top of a 5cm thick pavement of chocolate while he was working on a barrel of solid chocolate! I am assuming those are the blocks M. Roger starts off with when he sculpt his famous chocolate creatures.

More than an artist, Patrick Roger is a creator who invites us to use our senses... to see, to feel, to touch and to taste with delight. This time around, unfortunately, it was more seeing than tasting.

We've found the pop-up store, hurray!

A little chocolate Christmas decoration to welcome us

Wow! All these lions are made of chocolate?!? False alarm, they're bronze.

But we've found some chocolate miniature Christmas trees for sale!

As well as plenty of boxes of chocolate... but this is not what we came for!

So where's the chocolate?

A very friendly patissier - NOT M. Roger - demonstrating how to add marzipan elephant ears.

Expat girl is unimpressed, she is sure she could manage these all by herself.

She's probably right!

But look! He's standing on solid chocolate! THAT is seriously cool!

However, it was a sleak-looking gallery...

... more geared towards metal sculptures than chocolate ones! ;)