Denise Acabo & L'Etoile D'Or - The Parisian Willy Wonka in catholic schoolgirl outfit

 

I can't believe I only heard about this heavenly shop just south of Montmartre last year when I started reading the Parisian community food blogs. I'd lived only minutes away by foot for a couple of years, and never knew that there was a little slice of heaven waiting for me on Rue Fontaine. All things considered, it's probably a good thing for a variety of reasons that I have to make the quite to the trek to find this kind of satisfaction for my sweet tooth. 

 

Mme Acabo, the owner of the establishment, is as easy to recognize, and as deliteful as Willy Wonka himself. Dressed everyday in the same catholic schoolgirl type outfit, complete with pigtail braids and spectacles, she's been keeping the shop for 29 years. If you speak even a bit of french, and are very nice to her, she may choose to regale you with stories from her past, many of which are a mixture of sad, and also terribly beautiful. I won't go in to details here about some of the things she's shared, or have come up in conversation, but let's say anyone wanting to make a movie about this unforgettable character would have loads of material to choose from.

 

On to the candy ! What her shop is most known for, is stocking hard to come by products--candies that are only produced in small quantities, and often have to be sought-after in the town where they are created.  

 She only stocks things she likes to eat--for example, the nougat pictured above is her "favorite French nougat", and therefore the only type of this confection she keeps in the store.

The table pictured here is the reason many make the journey to her tiny shop--Bernanchon chocolate. I can attest to the amazingly addictive quality of these chocolate bars-which are only found in the Bernanchon shop in Lyon--there, and at L'Etoile d'Or. 

 

And here is the reason I keep coming back --Henri le Roux's Caramel Beurre Salé--salted butter caramels from Brittany so soft and smooth, you'd think you are eating a fresh cheese, except it is sugary, and caramely and nothing like cheese at all. The orignal caramel flavor remains the most popular, but I happen to have a special place in my heart for the black currant variety (three of which I have strategically hidden around my apartment to be gleefully discovered at a later date). As with most products in her shop, this is the only place you can find these particular caramels in Paris.

 What is striking about the shop just how--well, darn beautiful everything is. Pâte des fruits, crystallized violets & verbena leaves, the famous bergamots of Nancy... and everything dressed in their Sunday best. Sometimes the packaging is so beautiful, I don't want to open it--then again, I am fully aware of the candy that awaits inside, so that feeling never lasts too long...

And then there's Mme Acabo, going about her day, giving exquisite recommendations-as she if she knows exactly what you'll want as soon as you walk in the door, and then asking if you have "found your happiness". 

 Even those passing by in the street can't help but stop and take a look.

A L'Etoile D'Or accomplishes one sublime goal that is very hard to reach in this day and age--it helps us "serious" adults feel like kids again. Kids in a candy store, specifically. Only this time we don't have to save up our allowance, or ask mom "pretty pretty puleeeeeeaaaaassse". We go, we chat, we browse, and we find our happiness again.

A L'Etoile D'Or
30 Rue Fontaine
01 48 74 59 55