Apart from the medieval architecture, picturesque canals and waffles as big as your head, Bruges is known for one thing. Chocolate.
I felt that it was only right that I bring you a whole post devoted to some of our choco-highlights of the weekend. I think of it as a duty personally. I promise I did not enjoy sampling all this chocolate at all. Not one bit. Honest.
There are close to 50 chocolate shops in Bruges, many of them clustered around the main square. Not all of them, however, make their own chocolate though - for that, you have to look out for the little 'handmade' sign in the window. There is every variety of chocolate that you can imagine for sale from hot chocolate to slabs of cocoa to beautiful hand-crafted truffles to giant anteaters made out of chocolate (I kid you not).
Idiot that I am, I realised when I got home that I failed to really take any pictures of our two favourite chocolate shops.
First up is The Chocolate Line (home to the chocolate anteater), a tiny shop located a short walk from the main square. The chocolate combinations here vary from the traditional pralines to the bizarre (my favourite - the 'Atlanta', a bitter ganache flavoured with almonds and Coca Cola). There is real craftsmanship and inventiveness in their chocolates and a playfulness that I just love. It doesn't come cheap though; a 500g box (approx 30 chocolates) is nearly £30.
Our second favourite was Dumon which has two locations around the city (you can actually see a picture of the shop that we went to in my previous post). You go down a few steps into a tiny shop and the smell of chocolate overwhelms you. They make delicious individual chocolates as well as bags of chocolates in seasonal shapes which make perfect gifts - we bough a bag of Autumnal woodland themed chocolates. Prices are quite reasonable too with a 750g box (approx 45 chocolates) costing less than £20. We bought most of our presents from Dumon (keeping the chocolates from The Chocolate Line to ourselves!); my boyfriend took some to work and they disappeared in a matter of minutes. They were also very happy to put together a box of gluten-free chocolates for my boyfriend's mother. The chocolates last two months, if you can manage not to eat them in a matter of days!
Of course, the real joy is just wondering around the streets on a sugar-fuelled chocolate shop crawl, taking advantage of as many free samples as you can!
