While our Uber drive had no idea what we were talking about when we told him where we were going, it seems like the rest of France did! When we arrived at the Salon du Chocolat, the festival was packed! Before going in, we decided it was a good idea to go eat real food before getting a sugar high off all the chocolate we were about to consume. We went to a little Italian place down the street and that served to be its own entertainment but that’s a story for a different time. We went back to the festival and as we waited in line to enter, Michaela looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Esty, don’t freak out but there is a bee in your ponytail.” My hair was in a bun and the bee was starting to push its way inside. Naturally, I started panicking and frantically tried to figure out how to get myself out of the situation. This was a great foreshadowing to my experience at the Salon du Chocolat.

Full disclosure, I hate crowds. They make me feel claustrophobic and I hate strangers touching me. This is probably why I hate museums and tourist attractions. It’s not the actual places themselves I dislike, it’s the crowds they attract. Lucky for me, one of the first things I did at the Salon du Chocolat was find my way into a crowd that resembled a mosh pit with cookbooks as the weapon of choice. Apparently, there was a famous French baker present and people were trying to get his signature in their copy of the cookbook he authored. So, just like when that bee was making its home in my honey colored hair, I started to panic. I don’t even know how I ended up in the middle of that crowd but I beelined my way out.

The rest of the festival was almost just as packed. I mostly stuck to walking around the perimeters to avoid the crowds in the middle of the venue. It was incredible to see the various ways vendors had thought to use chocolate. I enjoyed seeing all the unique creations and even more, I enjoyed tasting them. Sadly, I didn’t get to try many though because of the crowds. I ended up buying one thing of chocolate that had Speculoos cookie on it. I also bought a chunk of homemade Sanougat to bring to my mom and brother when I see them in Ireland. We won’t discuss how much that cost me. Of everything at the festival though, my favorite part was probably seeing the “chocolate fashion” creations. They were unique and it was cool to see how the different designers were inspired by chocolate. Overall, it was a decent experience but something I would only want to do again if it wasn’t so busy.