Discovering new places in this city may be easy, since it is only necessary to allow oneself to walk down a street, avenue, or even an alley dating back to the Middle Ages and dare to enter a place you’ve never seen before. I can’t really explain it, but there are places that you can tell, even from a distance, they have catastrophe written all over them, others which, in spite of their appearance, I never felt attracted to, and only dared to enter for the sake of courage or because they had been recommended to me by a reliable source – even when despite said recommendation I ended up wanting to run out. Then there are those places where one feels invited to enter just by looking at them, and last, of course, there are those that look so beautiful that one gets scared of even setting foot into, and where you’re required to take out a second mortgage on your house when the bill arrives.
Right by the Latin Quarter at the exit of the Odéon metro station there is a little alley that is over 500 years old. Here, you can find a Chinese man selling jewelry, a restaurant I have heard is good, but given it’s rather unhygienic appearance never attracted my attention in the least, and there is another place which seems to give away chocolates rather than selling them, since it’s always jam-packed and is impossible to get into. I tried to get a table twice, maybe even three times, but never succeeded. I never got to know why it was so popular, since it seemed to be of a certain price. I assumed it was one of those places that you “simply couldn’t miss because it’s so exceptional” which seem to be hiding all around the city.
With time, and a little bit of learning, I was lucky enough to not only know, but also to study under the Chef de Cuisine who opened the place. The owner is the maître chocolatier Pierre Clauziel, who, according to what I’ve read, still considers Sundays sacred. He thus created a place where all of our chocolatey dreams get together… Ok, so that’s my personal interpretation of the aim of our chocolate master. In fact, he actually calls this place a Concept Store, since one can find in it a chocolate boutique, a chocolate bar, a restaurant, and even culinary workshops. But, just between you and me, I would consider this place to be a marvelous restaurant with a chocolate boutique next to it, plain and simple. Admittedly, however, I didn’t walk through the entire place, and as it would be expected, the place is still very special, for every dish served in the restaurant contains cocoa or chocolate in some form.
For this man, sharing joy is giving a bit of his time, discovering, tasting, licking his fingers, laughing, learning the language of chocolate and writing poems with it. Therefore, my dear reader, you can conclude from these lines, that the place is simply unique.
Finally, we were able to get a table in the middle of the week, and not on the day the Lord rested – ha! We went with some guests worthy of such pampering. The service was amazing, and the food was quite an adventure – and yes, I found chocolate and/or cocoa from beginning to end. Now, I could spend the next five lines listing everything we ate and had a chance to taste together with our guests, however, I think the best would be to say that this place is worth making time for, whether it’s a Sunday, or a Wednesday. If you find yourselves in the City of Lights, give yourselves the chance to stop by Un Dimanche à Paris and let yourselves be captivated by the young Chef Jean-Pierre Jullien and the marvelous chocolate of master Clauziel.
Address: 4 Cours du Commerce Saint-André, 75006 Paris
Subway Station: Odéon
Phone Number: +33 (0)1 5681 1818
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