Salon du Chocolat

The Salon du Chocolat is Europe’s annual chocolate trade show, featuring some of the finest chocolatiers from around the world showing and selling their delicious creations. This year’s 17th edition will focus for the first time on French pastries and chocolate trends. The 400 participants include 160 chocolate exhibiters and over 200 international chefs and pâtissiers who will demonstrate their recipes on the show’s podium. Among the participants: chocolate stars Pierre Hermé, Jean-Paul Hévin and Jean-Charles Rochoux, and legendary maisons Lenôtre, Puyricard, Dalloyau and Boissier. Well represented among the pâtissiers is the new generation of women pastry chefs making headlines in France, including Christelle Brua of the Pré Catalan and Elsa Marie of Le Grand Véfour; and the new tribe of pastry chefs who have opened bijou boutiques of their own: Philippe Conticini of the Pâtisserie des Rêves and Hugues Pouget of Hugo & Victor.

Besides cocoa-based confections, there are exhibits, chocolate-making demonstrations, chocolate sculptures, a bookstore and a Cocoa Show in which cocoa-producing countries present traditional music and dances from Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia and other locales. One of the biggest highlights is the annual runway show of chocolate and pastry-inspired fashions, this year sponsored by designer Chantal Thomass.

A must for all chocolate fans, and fun even for those who aren’t.

October 20-24. Porte de Versailles, 15th, Pavilions 5/2 and 5/3. Métro: Porte de Versailles. 10 am-7 pm. €12.50. 01.40.72.51.62. website